


Heavy is the Head

by LoneStar_118



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Hurt Kelly Severide, Hurt Stella Kidd, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Hurt/Comfort, it is going to be a fine blend of things just like stellas cocktails, pretty much everyone gets at least a little banged up at one time or another, some not mild hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:55:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29563605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoneStar_118/pseuds/LoneStar_118
Summary: It's a year of change for everyone at 51. Casey and Kidd navigate new leadership roles, Cruz becomes a father, Severide faces a big decision regarding his relationship with Kidd, a new recruit joins the team, and Gallo's search to uncover secrets from his past has deadly consequences.
Relationships: Blake Gallo & Darren Ritter, Matthew Casey & Kelly Severide, Stella Kidd/Kelly Severide, Sylvie Brett & Kelly Severide, Sylvie Brett & Stella Kidd, Sylvie Brett/Matthew Casey
Comments: 29
Kudos: 119





	1. Can't Live on Should'ves

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of outside of canon? It's kind of like an alternate version of late season 9 which we haven't seen yet... but I think you get the point. It's a season of Chicago Fire.

“Morning Chief,” Casey says as he passes Boden in the hallway; the chief is standing staring intently at the pictures hanging on the wall in the hallway.

Boden grunts something that could maybe pass as a good morning and continues looking at the pictures. Casey stops walking and lifts a skeptical eyebrow at him; he’s been like this a lot lately, absent minded, distant, all of it. Boden doesn’t notice that he’s stopped and continues to stare at the pictures on the wall.

“See you in the briefing,” Casey says.

“Mmhm,” Is Boden’s only reply.

Casey shakes his head a little and continues on his way to the locker room to get ready for shift.

“Anyone else think Boden’s been acting off lately?” Casey asks, posing the question to everyone else getting ready for the day. Maybe he’s reading too much into the chief’s behavior, but he’s pretty sure something’s up.

“What do you mean?” Herrmann asks, closing his locker and adjusting his shirt collar.

“I don’t know he just seems spacey lately,” Casey says with a shrug as he buttons the first two buttons on his polo shirt. 

“He has been walking the hallways a lot,” Mouch points out helpfully.

“It’s May, he always does that in May,” Ritter says, likes it’s completely obvious and everyone stops and looks at him. “What? None of you guys have noticed that before?”

“No, we all don’t have magical powers of observation like you, Rit,” Gallo says, giving his friend a little pat on the shoulder.

“Well, I mean, it makes sense doesn’t it? This house has lost a lot of people in May,” Ritter explains, casting a sideways glance at Gallo. “And that weighs on a chief.”

“You missed your calling kiddo, you’re too smart to be firefighter. Maybe PD is accepting detective applications,” Herrmann jokes, shaking his head.

Ritter just looks confused how no one else has seemed to notice this.

“This is different,” Casey insists. “I’m telling you guys, there’s something up.”

He’ll have to ask Severide about it when he comes in, if he ever does. He and Stella have been cutting it really close lately in terms of being ontime; usually they haven’t even left the bedroom by the time Casey is heading out the door.

“I think you’re imagining things, Captain,” Gallo says, walking past him to head to the briefing room. Ritter follows close behind him and gives Casey an apologetic look. Herrmann shrugs and leaves with the two youngsters. 

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Casey,” Mouch says comfortingly and gives him a pat on the shoulder. “If you’re right, he’ll tell us what’s going on eventually.”

“Should I ask him about it?” Casey asks looking up at Mouch.

“You could try, but I don’t know that he’ll tell you. He likes operating on his own time,” Mouch replies before heading for the briefing room like everyone else.

“Good morning, Captain!” Stella says chipperly, announcing her presence as she walks into the locker room with a bounce in her step. 

“You and Sev have fun last night?” Casey asks. He left Molly’s a long time before both of them, and never actually heard them come in.

Stella smiles mischievously. “Yes we did.”

“Where’s Sev?” Casey asks, amused with how over the moon Stella seems today.

“He said he had something to do before work,” She replies, slinging her bag into her locker.

“Well, he better hurry up or he’s going to be late,” Casey says checking his watch and standing up to head to the briefing room.

“That’s what I told him,” Stella says as she follows Casey out of the locker room.

“Okay, good morning everyone,” Boden says walking into the briefing room. “I’ve got a couple things to go over…”

Casey glances over his shoulder just in time to see Severide slip in the door in the back of the room.

“We have the Friends of Firefighters picnic coming up in June. I expect all of you to be there, and you’re each going to get ticket packets and you need to sell those,” Boden continues without missing a beat.

Casey glances back at Severide again to give him a confused look. Kelly’s never late and Boden never ignores people being late. Severide just shrugs and mouths “we need to talk”. Casey nods and turns back around to pay attention to the rest of the chief’s briefing, but before Boden can say anything else the tones sound.

_ “Truck 81, Engine 51, Ambulance 61, Squad 3, structure fire 2803 west Jackson.” _

Everyone’s on their feet and heading for the door the call has finished going out.

“Casey,” Boden calls and stops Casey before he can follow everyone else out the door. “I have some things to take care of here, I want you running IC.”

“Yes sir,” Casey says and heads for the door. He definitely needs to talk about this with Severide when they get back. Boden almost always rides when they all get called to a scene. It’s not like him to sit out on a call.

“Come on slowpoke!” Stella calls as Casey climbs into the truck. He barely has the door closed before the truck is rolling forward out of the station.

“Kidd, how do you feel about playing lieutenant for a call?” Casey asks as they pull out onto the road behind the squad truck. She passed all of her lieutenant’s exams with flying colors and she’s great leader, the only thing she’s waiting on is for a lieutenant's position to actually open up for her. Casey’s more than confident she can handle running truck for a call.

“Captain, are you serious?” she chokes, like she doesn’t believe he just asked her that. “I’d love to!”

“Good,” Casey says and turns in his seat to face Mouch and Gallo. “Kidd’s acting lieutenant for the call.”

“I’m not questioning yours or her leadership skills, but shouldn’t you be in charge?” Mouch asks.

“Boden decided he wants me doing incident command, so she’s running a truck,” Casey replies. He’s not sure what game Boden is playing with this, and he’s not sure he likes it. If he's the incident commander that leaves truck with 3 people, which doesn’t really sit well with him. He’s going to have to have a talk with Boden when they get back.

Casey’s used to size up, any good firefighter is, but it’s so terribly different having to look at things not just from a truck captain standpoint, he’s gotta see it all for everybody this time. There’s a car parked out front which means people are home, but there’s no one out front so most likely there are people inside, and heavy smoke is pouring out the windows which means they need to move fast.

“Okay,” Casey says getting off the truck and addressing everyone. “Boden in his infinite wisdom has put me in charge of the call.”

Severide raises his eyebrows questioningly, but doesn’t say anything.

“Squad, I want you doing primary search on the second floor, Truck you guys vent, and Engine I want you guys start interior attack and primary search on the first floor, but leave some guys out for rit. Call runs on channel seven.”

“You heard the man, lets go,” Severide says, taking his helmet off to mask up. “Capp and Tony you two stay together and when we get up there take the left side of the hallway. Cruz you’re with me.”

“We’re short handed, so we all stick together,” Stella say grabbing the roof saw and axe off the truck. “Mouch get the ladder up to the roof.”

“Aye Aye, lieutenant,” Mouch says, already making his climb up the truck.

Casey takes in a deep breath and watches as the crews carry out his orders. It feels wrong to stay put where he is and just watch. He should be going in or venting the roof with his crew, not standing outside watching and waiting and listening to the radio traffic. He catches Brett looking at him questioningly as she and Mackey open up the doors of the ambo.

“Got someone and am coming out,” Ritter reports over the radio, and no less than a minute later appears in the door supporting a man with a smoke stained face. Casey walks over and meets them at the ambulance.

“What’s the head count inside?” Casey asks, keeping one eye on the smoke coming out of the house.

“The kids are at school, I’m the only-” he breaks off, eyes widening with horror and tries to leap forward, but Ritter reaches out and stops him. “That’s my daughter’s bike!” the man says desperately pointing at a bike leaned against a tree in the yard. “She must’ve ditched school again!”

Casey clenches his jaw in frustration and looks back to the house, the smoke is getting dark and coming more heavily. 

“You have to find her!” The man cries and keeps pushing against Ritter. 

“We will, don’t worry,” Casey assures him. “But you need to stay here and let us do your job. What floor is your daughter’s room on? And how old is she?”

“She’s fourteen and the second floor- please find her!”

“We will,” Casey promises and then turns away from the man to talk into the radio. “Squad, there’s a 14 year old girl still inside. Her rooms on the 2nd floor.”

“Top floor is clear, Casey,” Severide reports back. “And fire’s starting to roll.”

Casey closes his eyes and lets out a slow breath. The smoke is black and violent and if the fire inside is rolling then they’re running dangerously close to flash over.

“We can do a secondary sweep,” Severide adds like he’s waiting for Casey to give an order.

“Captain, the roof is too soft, we can’t get up here to vent even with roof ladders it won’t hold,” Stella reports before Casey can reply to Severide

“Negative Severide, get clear of the second floor,” Casey replies. “Truck can’t vent and roof is soft. It’s going to come down.”

“Give me one minute,” Severide requests. “I’ll make it snappy. I promise.”

“Fine, one minute, not a second longer Severide” Casey says through gritted teeth. And turns back to the father. “Is there anywhere else she might be?”

“The basement maybe- i don’t know! Just find her!” the man cries desperately.

“Wait? Are you guys in there looking for Jamie?” a woman asks walking across the street toward them.

“Yes!” the man chokes, “her bike’s here- she skipped school again!”

“No,” the woman says shaking her head. “She rode to school with Linda, they’re both there right now. I just got a text from her!”

“Son of a bitch,” Casey hisses under his breath and clicks on the radio. “Everyone out, now! Severide, cancel the search. The girl is at school.”

He can hear the roof popping.

Severide is the last one to clear the house; he only makes about halfway down the walkway before the windows on the second floor blow out and fire shoots out into the black smoke, and half a second later the roof groans and caves in. Casey jumps a little and Severide ducks, a startled expression on his face. All he can do is stare at the house in wide eyed shock, his heart pounding in his chest. If he’d called for the evacuation any later half the crew would be dead right now.

“What the hell happened?” Severide demands, adjusting his helmet.

“The dad thought his daughter skipped school, then the neighbor came over and said she was at school,” Casey says defensively and tries not to sound too upset. But it’s hard, if Severide had stayed in that extra minute he’d be dead right now.

“Let’s get lines on the house for an exterior attack,” Hermmann shouts to his crew waiting with charged hose lines.

Severide shakes his head and gives Casey a pat on the shoulder as he walks past him to get to the squad trucks.

“That was a close one, huh?” he laughs sounding amused, apparently already forgiving Casey for what could’ve just happened. If Casey had been in there with him and narrowly escaped too he’d probably be laughing to, close calls do that- the release of adrenaline after it’s all over usually either results in laughing or crying. People who’ve been doing this a long time laugh, but Casey can’t bring himself to laugh. Severide could’ve just gotten roasted alive because of a call he made, it’d be his fault if Sev had just died.

“We’ve gotta talk to Boden when we get back,” Casey says and can’t do anything to stop the quiver in his voice.

“Yeah,” Severide replies. “You should get a promotion.”

“Shut up,” Casey breathes. “I almost got you killed.”

“But you didn’t. You pulled us all out,” Severide replies, taking his air pack off his shoulders. 

“Yeah but I said one more minute and you didn’t have one more minute,” Casey replies.

“We thought there was kid in there,” Severide replies. “You gotta risk a lot to save a lot. Boden would’ve done the same thing.”

***

“Severide and Herrmann, I need to see you in my office,” Boden says before they’ve all barely made it inside after the call.

“You don’t want to wait for Casey to get back?” Severide asks. Truck is still on scene doing over haul, and Boden seems to want to have one of his officers only chats. Severide feels a little wrong doing it without Casey; they’ve been doing them together for a long time.

“No, I just want to talk to the two of you,” Boden replies and beacons toward his office.

Severide looks to Herrmann, hoping maybe the engine lieutenant will hold some answers, but he looks just as confused as Severide feels.

“How did Casey do running that call?” Boden asks as soon as their in the privacy off his office with the door closed.

“He did great chief,” Herrmann says, piping up first. “He didn’t miss a beat and the call ran as smoothly as any call like that could. And he got us all out alive. From what I heard there were a couple curve balls, but he handled them.”

Severide nods in agreement. The roof caving in had been a little close for comfort, and maybe Casey’s decision to give him one more minute could’ve gone bad, but it didn’t.

“Thank you,” Boden says nodding thoughtfully. “That’s all.”

Severide glances at Herrmann who shrugs and leaves the room.

“Can I say something, chief?” Severide asks, pushing the door closed again.

Boden looks up at him and nods. “Go ahead.”

“I don’t know what your plan was with all this is, but you put Casey in a tough spot today. He did a great job, but it was rough for him. And I don’t think it’s fair of you to do that to him again. He’s used to running calls, but not something that big. If you’re going to do that to him again, I think you need to loop him in on your big picture plan,” Severide says, trying not to sound angry or upset despite being a little of both. If Casey were a lesser man he would’ve frozen up. What Boden did was risky.

“Thank you for expressing your concerns,” Boden says curtly. “You’re dismissed now.”

Severide opens and closes his mouth, not entirely sure what to do or say other than leave. Boden has been weird for a long time now, but this is beyond weird. The chief has never been the kind of chief to just blatantly ignore the concerns of his people, or do what he’d just done with Casey.

“Want a smoke?” Severide offers, holding up two cigars as the truck crew starts to unload from 81. Casey looks like a tense hot mess.

“No, I want to go talk to Boden,” He says, hopping down from the truck. “I shouldn’t have been running point on that call.”

“I don’t know that, that’s the best idea right now,” Kelly says. “We should talk first, and I’ll go talk to Boden with you after-”

The bell interrupts Severide mid sentence and everyone on the bay freezes.

_ “Ambulance 61, man down from unknown causes.” _

Brett lets out a groan as she follows Mackey back to the ambo. She gives Casey a little wave as she swings closes the door.

“Come on, Casey,” Severide insists, waving the cigars in front of his friend’s face.

“Fine,” Casey says and rolls his eyes as he grabs one of them from Severide.

“I’ll get the ladder,” Severide says walking around to the back of 81 with Casey following him.

“Hey, Kelly can we talk later?” Stella asks as she walks toward the doors to inside.

“Yeah sure,” Kelly calls back to her.

“Great, let me know when you have some free time.”

“What’s that about?” Casey asks, leaning against the back of the truck as Severide pulls one of the ladders out of the back compartment.

“Guess I’ll find out when I talk to her,” Kelly replies as Casey moves to help him with the ladder.

“She did a good job running truck today,” Casey comments as they both watch the lieutenant to be slip inside.

“Of course she did. She’s Stella Kidd. She’s good at everything,” Severide says fondly. He’s still not sure how he managed to be lucky enough to be with her. He’s a long way off from deserving her love and yet somehow…

“When are you to going to tie the knot?” Casey jokes and gives Kelly a slap on the back. 

He’s really not sure what to say, he wants more than anything to pop the question and he’s even been thinking about it a lot lately, but there’s something so very terrifying about the thought of actually doing it. He knows she’ll say yes if he asks, but his fear is still there.

“And what about you and Brett?” Severide teases, turning the conversation around on Casey, who looks flustered and chokes on a laugh.

“We’re taking things slow. She’s been ingaged twice, I’ve been ingaged twice and married once, you know. It’s a lot and-”

“I know, Casey,” Kelly replies gently, and gives his friend a little pat on the shoulder. “Let’s go smoke before a call comes in and ruins everything.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Casey agrees.

“I just don’t get what’s up with him,” Casey says letting out a frustrated huff of smoke. “He’s been acting out of it for a while now, he didn’t yell at you when came in late, and now this. Why were you late, by the way?”

“Honestly?” Severide says looking out across the city from the roof of the house. “I wanted to see what he’d do. You’re not the only who’s noticed how weird he’s been acting.”

“I’ve never seen him like this,” Casey says thoughtfully. “And it’s so unlike him not to ride with us.”

“We’re agreed there,” Severide says, shaking his head. “Maybe there’s something going on with Donna.”

“I don’t know, it’s not like him to let home stuff get in the way of work,” Casey says shaking his head. “It’s gotta be something else.”

Severide sighs. There’s a lot of things it could be, but it’s not like Boden to leave his officers out of the loop.

“Sorry I almost got you killed earlier,” Casey says after a long time of silence. 

“Don’t do that Casey,” Severide says looking over at him. “You didn’t almost get me killed. You didn’t have all the information which wasn’t your fault. We thought there was still someone in there. You did what anyone would’ve done in that situation.”

“I should’ve known you didn’t have a minute-”

“Casey, stop! You can’t live on should’ves. Not in this job. And I’m completely untouched. As soon as you knew the victim wasn’t in the building you gave the clear out order. You ran the call like any chief would’ve.”

Casey doesn’t look convinced, but keeps his mouth shut. Severide feels bad for him, the weight of taking care of everyone on a call is a heavy one, it’s one he always thought Casey could handle, though.

“You know what’s weird?” Severide asks, thinking back to the conversation he, Boden, and Herrmann had had. 

“All this BS?” Casey tries, with a forced smile.

“He checked up on you after the call,” Kelly replies, without looking over at his friend. 

“What do you me?”

“He called me and Herrmann into his office and asked us how you running the call went,” Severide says. Casey has run calls before, not ones as big as that one, but he’s been put on the spot and he always does a good job even if the two of them don’t always see eye to eye on the decisions made.

“Are you serious?” Casey asks perking up to look at Kelly directly.

“Yeah, I’m dead serious, and when I stuck up for you and told him it wasn’t fair to put you on the spot like that without warning, he blew me off,” Kelly replies.

“I mean he’s allowed to put me in charge. He’s done it before and chiefs do it all the time…” Casey says absent mindedly.

“But big ones? First thing in the morning, Casey?”

“I don’t know, we just need to talk to him,” Casey replies, blowing out a mouthful of smoke.

***

“That looks official,” Gallo comments, taking Stella by surprise.

“Don’t read over my shoulder!” she objects with a little more gumption than she means to, and shoves her very official document under the pillow on her bed.

“Why so secretive?” Gallo retorts and leans against one of the dividers and crosses his arms.

“Because I don’t want people to know,” Stella states flatley and glares at him.

Gallo lets his arms drop to his side and takes on a gentler less invasive expression. “Well I figured that much, but  _ why  _ don’t you want people to know?”

“Because I don’t know what I want to do yet, and as much as I love everyone here, they can get preachy and opinionated and I’m not ready for that if I haven’t made up my mind,” Stella explains, being as brief and elusive as she can. She doesn’t want to talk about this with anyone until she discusses it with Kelly first. The last thing on earth that she needs is for him to find out from someone else that her promotion has come through and if she takes it she’ll be transferring out of 51. She knows she should be ecstatic about the letter sitting under her pillow,. She’s worked so hard to get here and a lot of other people have worked hard to get her here, but thinking about it and leaving 51 makes her feel a little sick to her stomach.

“Whatever it is, you don’t look too happy about it. Maybe you should tell everyone. They’ll probably try to talk you out of it and it looks like that’s what you need,” Gallo observes.

“I’m more scared they’ll try to talk me into it,” Stella replies absently.

“Well, if you don’t want to be talked into it, it sounds like you don’t want to do whatever it is, so don’t,” Gallo says with a shrug and slips his hands into his pockets. “Good luck with whatever it is. I’m going to go bug Ritter to make lunch.”

Stella frowns as she watches the youngest member of truck leave. He’s an idiot 90% of the time, but this time he might actually have a point; part of her can’t believe she’s actually seriously thinking about turning down a promotion.

***

“Something’s not right down here,” Sylvie says as soon as the elevator door opens on the 3rd sublevel of the parking garage that the call came from. There’s something eerily quiet about the garage and it makes her skin crawl. There’s two people down on the ground and no sign of anyone else. “61 to main, we’re going to need a second ambo to our address.”

The only response she get is static.

“Damn it, the concrete is messing with the signal,” she says under her breath as she and Mackey kneel down next to the two people collapsed on the ground. 

“I’ve got a pulse,” Mackey reports checking her patient.

“Same here,” Brett replies and looks around the parking garage; there’s no one else around. There’s nothing visibly wrong with either of the people, and they don’t seem to be in any sort of pain, just sleeping peacefully on the oil stained floor of the parking garage without a care in the world. There’s also no one around who could’ve call it in. The whole thing feels wrong, like a trap or a terrible situation waiting to unfold. It reminds her a little of the time she and the rest of 51 had responded to an active shooter call and they’d all gotten stuck in the building. “Who called this in?”

“I have no idea,” Mackey says looking around too, and scrunches up her face like she just smelled something awful. “Do you smell that, Brett?”

“Smell what?” Brett asks, and snifs the air. To her it just smells like stale parking garage air, little gasoline, little oil, little bit of exhaust, but nothing out of the ordinary.

“I don’t know, it smells a little like rotten eggs,” Mackey replies, sniffling. “I really don’t like it.”

Brett frown and takes in a deep breath, and sure enough, now that Mackey’s said it she can smell it too.

“Go back up to the surface level and call for an additional ambo and a truck crew,” Brett says, studying the two patients. The bad feeling twisting in her stomach is getting worse the longer she’s down here. 

“What are you thinking?” Mackey asks, hesitantly.

“Gas leak maybe. I’m going to get these two on oxygen while you go up and call this in, okay?” Brett replies. She’s pretty sure it is gas. She’s responded to her fair share of leaks, and she’d recognize the smell anywhere.

“If it’s a gas leak shouldn’t you come too?” Mackey demands, she’s scared.

“I’m not leaving these two people,” Brett says firmly, gas or no gas these two people need medical help. “Now do what I said and go call it in. I’ll be fine. And you need to take the stairs, if this is a gas leak we don’t want the elevator accidently making a spark.”

Mackey looks reluctant to obey, but does as she is told and stands up to head back to the stairs. She had a point, Sylvie knows it’s not the best course of action to stay down here with these two people, but there’s no way in hell she’s leaving these two people down here alone.

***

“Look at these,” Cruz says flipping his computer screen around to show Herrmann his latest find on the baby clothes front. “Aren’t these just the cutest thing ever?”

Herrmann frowns and puts down his magazine. “You don’t want those. If you’re going to go with wool socks, you’ll want alpaca wool. Sheep wool is too scratchy.”

Cruz lets out an exasperated huff and closes his computer. “I give up!”

He’s not exactly sure what made him think it was a good idea to go to Herrmann for help for dad advice. Sure he’s got a lot of kids and a lot of experience, but he also has a lot of opinions that right now are the exact opposite of helpful. He really just wishes he could be doing this with Otis; he of course wouldn’t have anything educated or conducive to bring to the table, but he’d make this all a lot more fun and less stressful. Whenever family or having kids had come up, he and Otis had always talked about doing it together, being like each other's kid’s second dads. Cruz had always thought Otis would be the best man at his wedding and then be there with his kids, but instead the only way Joe’s kids are going to know him is through stories.

“What do you mean you give up!” Herrmann protests.

“I mean I give up on trying to please you!” Joe shoots back. “I’ll just baby clothes shop by myself. If I wait to try to please you, my son will be born before i buy  _ anything _ !”

“Hang on now!” Herrmann tries to argue as Joe stands up.

“No, it’d be more conducive to ask Capp.”

“Herrmann’s right, alpaca wool has the best quality. I can knit baby socks for you if you want,” Capp pipes up looking up from his bowl of fruit loops.

“Nobody was asking you, Capp!” Cruz snaps and glares at him.

“My bad! I was just trying to help!”

“Well stop! I’ll just do this myself!” Joe shouts and storms out of the common room, almost bumping into Casey and Severide who both give him a startled look as he pushes past them to get to the bay.

He feels bad for blowing up at everyone, but he can’t take it. It seems like all of what should be the happiest moments of his life are tainted by the fact that Otis isn’t there to celebrate them with him. It’s been two and half years, but it still feels so wrong doing all this without him.

Joe climbs up into the hose bed of 51 and flops down on the rough hoses. It’s far from the most comfortable place to lay, but it’s peaceful and it’s quiet, and it’s been his hiding spot since he was a candidate.

“Hey, Cruz?” 

Joe nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of Ritter’s voice as he pokes his head up over the edge of the truck.

Joe sighs and sits up. He hadn’t been expecting to be followed. “What?”

“That got kind of rocky,” Ritter comments, climbing up into the hose bed with him.

“Yeah,” Cruz sighs and avoids the younger firefighter’s gaze.

“You’re upset about more than just Herrmann being impossible to please. Aren’t you?” he asks looking at Joe with concern in his brown eyes.

“Yeah, but I’ll be fine.”

“Talking about it’ll probably make you feel a little better sooner,” Ritter prompts gently.

Cruz swallows and ducks his head. “Otis should be here.”

“I’m sorry,” Ritter breathes and rests a hand on Joe’s shoulder. “But he is. He’s right here with you, Cruz. I didn’t know him long, but he’s part of the house and he’s part of you. So he is here doing this with you.”

“How the hell did you get so wise,” Cruz sniffles and wipes away a tear working its way down his cheek. “Maybe I should have you help me with baby clothes shopping.”

“If you want me to,” Ritter offers comfortingly, and leans over to give Cruz a hug.

***

“You ready to bite this bullet?” Severide asks before lifting his hand to knock on Boden’s door.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Casey replies, straightening himself up. Severide takes that as his go ahead, and knocks on the door of the chief’s office.

“Come in,” Boden says, he sounds stressed.

Casey files in after Severide and closes the doors behind him. He knows they need to talk to Boden about what’s been going on with him, because it affects the whole house and could lead to trouble down the line, but now that he and Sev standing in the man’s office he’s having second thoughts.

“What can I do for you two?” the chief asks standing up to greet the two of them.

“What’s going on chief?” Casey asks bluntly, forcing all his qualms to the back of his mind.

“What do you mean?” Boden asks, obviously trying to keep something back.

“You’ve been acting off for weeks. Barely saying a word sometimes, and other times getting all nostalgic on us,” Casey says. “Then this morning, you didn’t say anything to Severide when he came in late and interrupted the morning briefing. Then you put me in charge on that call, a call you probably should’ve been at…”

“What’s going on?” Severide finishes for Casey, he asks it curtly and directly. “And please don’t just brush this off like you did earlier when I expressed my concerns. If there’s something going on at home that you need to take care of, you need to take care of, because this behavior isn’t good for the house.”

Boden sighs and sinks back into his chair. “I-”

He gets cut off by the tones sounding, and Casey’s not even sure why he’s surprised this conversation is getting interrupted. It’s very on par with fire house life.

_ “Truck 81, Squad 3, possible gas leak.” _

“We’ll talk when you guys get back,” Boden says.

“You promise?” Casey asks waiting a second to follow Severide out the door.

“I promise, now go. And be careful,” Boden replies.

“Always chief.”

***

“Wait, isn’t this address Brett and Mackey got called to?” Cruz asks as they pull onto the scene just behind 81.

“Make sure to keep your head on, Cruz,” Kelly warns, looking out the side window, and sure enough 61 is sitting parked outside the parking garage. He knows the new paramedic is like a little sister Cruz, and he tends to stop thinking things through when family gets involved. He wishes he could give Casey the same warning, because on things Brett related he also tends to lose his grasp on clear thinking.

“I want everyone in full ppe until we know what we’re dealing with here,” Casey is saying to his truck crew as Severide and the rest of Squad are joining them. “And get the gas meters off the trucks.”

“Same goes for Squad,” Severide adds and walks over to stand next to Casey.

“Hey!” A shout from Mackey grabs everyone's attention.

“Mackey!” Cruz cries, sounding relieved and takes off at a run toward her.

“Where’s Brett?” Casey asks looking around like he’s hoping to see her.

“We were down on the third sublevel and the radios couldn’t get a signal, so she sent me up here to radio for back up. There are two people down,” Mackey reports as Cruz wraps himself around her in a protective hug. “We think it’s a gas leak

“You mean she’s still down there?” Casey demands, a look that says all too clearly he’s about to do something stupid coming into his eyes. Kelly imagines he got a similar look in his eye right before he jumped out of a moving fire truck when 61 crashed.

“She wouldn’t leave the patients alone down there,” Mackey says, pulling herself away from Cruz.

Casey doesn’t say anything, just turns on his heels and makes a B line for the parking garage entrance.

“Casey, wait,” Severide says firmly, grabbing him by the strap of his air pack and making him turn around. “You can’t just go running around willy nilly-”

“Of course I can! Brett’s down there alone!” Casey protests and tries to pull away from him

“Case!” Kelly snaps and gives his friend a little shake, hoping to put some sense back into his head. “Freelancing gets people killed. We need a plan, especially if there’s a gas leak-”

“If there’s a gas leak then we don’t have time!”

“Casey, shut up and listen to me! You’re wasting time right now!” Severide snaps. “Me and squad will go get Brett and the victims with her. You and truck need to make sure the rest of the garage is clear, get the gas shut off, and radio for additional units, okay?”

“No way! I’m going to get Sylvie!” Casey protests.

“No you’re not, you’re too close,” Severide insists.

“If it were Stella down there, you’d be up my ass to let you get here!” Casey argues desperately. 

“Yeah, and you’d make me hang back. So I’m doing the same for you. And I promise I’ll get her back to you in one piece.”

“Captain, he’s right,” Stella says, grabbing Casey’s shoulder.

“Fine,” he grumbles and shrugs her hand off.

“Squad, we’re going down!” Severide announces and waves to his waiting crew. “It’ll be okay, Casey. I promise.”

“Okay, truck, let's clear the upper floors and make sure everyone is clear of the structure,” Casey says glaring at Severide as he does so.

“Be careful down there, Kelly,” Stella calls to Severide as they split ways at the parking garage entrance.

“You too,” Severide calls over his shoulder.

“Definitely a gas leak,” Capp confirms looking at the gas meter. “We gotta make this snappy. It’s above it’s UEL, but who knows how long that’ll last.”

Severide lets out a worried sigh, if the gas is that rich there’s a very slim chance Brett is conscious down below them, unless the gas is thinner where she is in which case she’s in more danger of getting blown up.

“Let’s move then,” Severide says and picks up his pace a little. “Keep an eye out for other victims as we go.”

They’ve barely made it to the second sublevel when Capp finds someone.

“Lieutenant I’ve got someone over here,” he reports.

“Tony go with him and get that person up to the surface,” Severide orders.

“I’ve got two people over here too,” Cruz says, calling from a little ways up ahead.

“Damn it,” Kelly hisses under his breath. They don’t have time to wait for backup to come help. These people need to be taken up now, but if he sends them all up that leaves him alone to get what could very likely be three people up, alone. Two is manageable, but pulling three people out at once is pushing his luck. There’s really no other option. “Cruz, Tony, and Capp, you guys take them. I’ll go get Brett.”

“No way lieutenant!” Cruz protests. “You can’t go by yourself-!”

“There’s not another option, Cruz. And we don’t have time to argue about this. Get them and go,” Severide says interrupting him. He’d known this was going to be a long day as soon as that first call had come through in the middle of briefing. But it’s shaping up to longer than what he could’ve possibly imagined.

“But-”

“Now Cruz!” Severide shouts, already heading down the ramp to the next level. “I won’t say it again.”

He appreciates Cruz’s concern, but he doesn’t have time for it right now and neither does Brett or the victims she’s with.

“And what ever you do, don’t let Casey try to come down after me!” He adds. He knows Casey, and he knows what the first thing on his friend’s mind will be when the rest of squad reaches the surface without Brett.

***

“Where the hell are Severide and Brett?” Casey demands as soon as Tony, Capp and Cruz emerge from the parking garage without Severide or Brett.

“We had to get these people up,” Cruz reports. There are now two more ambos on scene and what look like people from the gas company. He can feel Casey gearing up to give him an earful, and he’s not entirely prepared to take it. It’s not his fault Severide is down there alone; he’d tried to go with him, but the lieutenant wasn’t having it. “Severide’s getting Brett and the two other victims.”

“Kelly’s down there alone?” Stella asks demandingly glaring down Cruz as she takes off her mask. “With  _ three  _ people. He’s tough and strong, but he’s not that strong. There’s no way he can get three people up here.”

“Mask back up Kidd. We’re going to get him,” Casey says angrily and grabs two spare bottles off the truck.

“He said not to let you-” Cruz tries to argue, but he doesn’t put much effort into it because the truth of the matter is, they’re right. Severide’s going to need back up down there.

“Severide isn’t running the scene,” Casey says, interrupting him. “I am until Boden gets here, which should be any second now. So I am going to go get my dumbass best friend, Sylvie. So get out of the way. Go sit down and rehab for a couple minutes.”

“I’m coming with you,” Cruz says insistently. “That’s my lieutenant down there.”

“You should’ve thought of that before you left him down there,” Casey says bitterly. “You’re staying up here to run point on things until Boden get here.”

“But-”

“Not another word Cruz,” Casey replies already heading for the entrance to the parking garage with Stella on his heels. Cruz wants to run after them, make them let him go with them, but he knows Casey will never go for it, he’s too pissed and too set in his ways. Stella and Casey disappear inside the structure and the only thing Cruz can do is watch.

They’ve only been gone a minute or two when Gallo and Mouch come running out of the building at full speed. Cruz isn’t sure he’s ever seen Mouch run, but he’s almost moving faster than Gallo and it’s a little terrifying- the whole thing. The way they’re running like the devils on their tail.

“Captain! Captain!” Gallo is panting and comes careening to a stop right in front of Cruz. His eyes are wide and say all too clearly that this day is about to go to shit.

“What’s wrong?” Cruz asks, searching Gallo and Mouch for answers.

“The gas, it’s in its explosive range,” Gallo wheezes. “Where’s Casey? He needs to pull everyone back.”

“He just went back in with Kidd,” Cruz says, alarm shooting up his spine like a bolt of lightning. The building could explode at any second.

Gallo bites his lip and before Cruz or Mouch can do anything to stop him, he’s running back toward the building.

“Gallo! Get back here!” Cruz shouts and lunges after him. No one else can go back in. No one else can die. He slams his body into Gallo’s and knocks the young firefighter to the ground.

“Hey!” Gallo shouts and starts fighting to get Cruz off of him. “We have to go get them! We have to warn them!”

He makes an attempt to scramble back up, but Cruz grabs him by the air pack and shoves him back onto the ground. “I can’t let you go back in there.”

He can’t let Gallo go back in, but he can. He can go stop Stella and Casey before it’s too late. He’s almost to his feet, when a bone shattering boom cracks through the air and fireballs shoot out of the sides of the building. The force of the blast knocks Cruz off his feet and he hits the ground next to Gallo. Heat and searing pain stab through his bunker gear as his head smacks against the pavement and everything goes black.

***

“Hey, Brett?” Severide says gently and nudges the downed paramedic laying on her side next to the two victims. “Brett we gotta go, wake up.”

“Take them first,” she mumbles without opening her eyes.

“Brett, come on, you gotta get up. I’m not leaving anyone down here, and I can’t carry all three of you. You gotta help me out here,” Kelly urges and nudges her a second time.

“The gas…”

“Damn it Brett,” Kelly swears under his breath and takes his helmet off so he can get his mask off. He takes one deep breath of the dry bottled air and then puts his mask over Brett’s face, and looks around for a faster way out than the way he came. His first thought is the elevator; he could get Brett and the two victims to it in no time at all, but riding it up is a big risk especially since he doesn’t know what the gas levels are at now. If the thing let off any kind of spark it could easily blow this whole building burying him, Brett, these victims and whatever search teams and civilians haven’t gotten out yet. The next best option is the stairs; there’s a chance that there’s a little less gas in the stairway and it’s faster, but he still can’t carry three people up.

“Brett, I need you to walk with me over to the stairs, okay?” Severide urges and takes his mask back from her just long enough to get another breath of clean air. He props her up with one arm and returns the mask to her face.

“Take care of them first,” Brett mumbles, looking up at him with scared blue eyes and points to the two victims who are both already on air.

“No, you’re the only one without air, so you’re going first,” Kelly replies sternly.

“They come first, besides… I’m too tired…” she breathes and her eyes flutter closed.

“Damn it, Brett,” Kelly groans and looks around. He’s not leaving anyone down here, especially Brett and he can’t take all three of them at once, so he’s going to have to risk taking the elevator.

“Alright, we’re taking the elevator,” he says decidedly and scoops Brett up in his arms.

“Matt…” 

“Still me,” He grunts as he stands up and makes his way across the parking lot to the elevator entrance. He hits the up button with his elbow and waits patiently for the doors to slide slowly open. He slips inside before the doors are even open all the way and sets the paramedic down in the back corner of the elevator car. “I’ll be-”

He stops talking as what sounds like a rush of wind fills the air, only it can’t be wind because they’re three stories underground which leaves only one option: the gas has ignited and the fire is coming.

There’s all kinds of training about not leaving victims behind and putting them first, but in the heat of the moment, Kelly only does one thing. The only thing he can think to do, he hits the close elevator door button and throws himself over Brett just as the blistering heat reaches them

***

Boden is a block away, leading the way for the engine, but even from that distance he can still feel the ground shake and see the plume of black smoke and fire shooting up into the sky and a second later the boom follows deafeningly. He can feel it reverberate in his bones, and he feels it kill part of him… the part of him that dies every time one of his people gets injured or dies. There have been a lot of close calls throughout his career, a lot of times something has happened while he was stuck standing outside where he thought for sure he was going to have to bury his entire crew, where he was sure they were all dead, and that feeling is rolling over him like a tidal wave, thick and heavy and drowning. He picks up the radio in his car and does the only thing he can think to do. 

“Truck 81, Squad 3, report!”

There’s nothing but static over the radio, evil deafening static.

“Truck 81, Squad 3 report!” He shouts one more time as they round the bend to the scene and smoke and tiny pieces of rock spatter against the windshield of his car. It’s hard to see anything through the smoke and dust, but he can just barely make out the red flashing lights of truck 81 and the squad truck. But other than the blinking lights and the smoke and falling pieces of ash the scene is still. There’s no one left standing. He knows he needs to call a mayday, call for help, but the words die in his throat and he can’t find it in himself to say a word.

As the dust begins to clear there’s no sign of anyone, just empty trucks and smokey air.


	2. Let's Go Find Our Lost Lovers

“Casey? Casey? Hey! Captain, wake up!”

Casey wakes up to Stella shaking him and shouting at him, only it doesn’t sound like she’s shouting everything is muffled by the ringing in his ears. But he can tell she’s yelling by the expression on her sooty face.

“I’m fine,” he grunts and sits up, his head spinning as he looks around the darkness around them trying to make out some familiar feature in the beam of his flashlight. Everything hurts like he’s been sent through the spin of a dryer, and his skin feels hot and sharp- like the unbearable shriveling hot it gets when a room is getting dangerously close to flashing over. “What the hell happened?”

“We almost roasted what happened,” Stella pants and wipes her face with the back of one gloved hand. 

Casey nods and blinks his eyes a couple times. He remembers now. They’d been on the landing of the second sublevel when the fire had come through the door, Stella had tackled him out of the way and that’s the last thing he can picture clearly.

“The stairs came down on top of us,” she says, shining her flashlight up the stairs behind him to reveal what looks like a wall of cement blocking their way back up.

“The good news is, we made it to the third floor,” Casey says, directing his own light toward the number painted on the wall. They must’ve rolled down an entire flight of stairs; it definitely feels like they did. He’s bruised in places he didn’t know he had. “We can get to Severide and Brett now.”

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen Captain,” Stella breathes and shines her flashlight on the doorway. The door has been blown off its hinges and on the other side of it is a solid wall of debris.

“Damn it,” Casey spits and punches his fist into the hard ground; he barely even feels it. The more he thinks about Sylvie being stuck down here the more his chest tightens out of fear and panic. “We have to get to her.”

“Captain-”

He grabs up his halligan and hauls himself to his feet. There’s no telling if Severide got to her, for all Matt knows she’s trapped somewhere on the side of the slab of concrete blocking the doorway. A halligan is no sledge hammer, but he’s done more with much less. He starts his swing, but Stella jumps in front of him grabbing both his arm and the shaft of the bar.

“Woah there cowboy!” She says urgently and restless his arms down. “You can’t just go whacking away at stuff! I know you want to get to Brett, but you don’t know what that thing is supporting. You could cause a secondary collapse!”

“I have to find her!” Casey argues and tries to yank his tool free from Stella’s hands, but she tightens her grip.

“Casey. I know you want to find her! Trust me! Kelly’s out there somewhere in all this mess too! I want to find him just as badly as you want to find Brett, but we can’t just go blowing through debris. That blast probably brought this whole place down. We gotta use our heads, Captain!” Stella shouts and yanks the halligan out of his hands.

“But…” Casey starts to protest but gets hit with a sudden wave of dizziness and collapses back onto the hard ground, everything around him spinning.

“Captain!” Stella’s cry is distant and gets drown out by the ringing in his ears intensifying.

***

Gallo’s been his fair share of blazing infernos, but the heat wave that came off the parking garage as the gas ignited was like nothing he’s ever felt before. It was blistering…

Cruz grabs him and shouts something at him, but he can’t make out a word of, just a deafening ringing in his ears. The world is spinning around him and his eyes are stinging from the heat and the dusty smoke, but he can make out blood coming out of the squad firefighter’s ears, and he looks as dizzy and out of it as Blake feels.

“Cruz are you okay?” he shouts, or at least he hopes that’s what he shouted, as he grabs hold of Cruz’s arm and turns his gaze toward the parking structure that’s now more of a pile of rubble than anything else. It’s hard to make out much more than that through the smoke and dust.

The squad firefighter tugs at Blake’s arm to get his attention, and says something as he points at his ears, but Gallo can’t make out a word of it. Part of him just wants to pass out, everything hurts and his head is spinning. 

“I can’t hear you!” Blake tries to tell him, and Cruz gives up on whatever he’s trying to say and grabs Gallo the shoulder strap of his air pack and hauls him to his feet. It’s not until he’s upright that he realizes just how bad his dizziness is, the only reason he doesn’t fall over is because Cruz keeps him upright as he tugs him back toward the relative safety of the trucks. As they stumble toward the trucks Mouch emerges from the dust to meet them.

***

“Are you two okay?” Mouch asks as he grabs onto both Cruz and Gallo. Neither of them look okay. Gallo looks like he’s about to fall over and they're both bleeding from their ears. He can also make out a couple burns on the firefighters.

“I think the explosion ruptured his ear drums,” Cruz pants, both of them nearly collapsing onto Mouch. “He can’t hear anything-

“Okay,” Mouch says, scanning both of them for further injuries. Gallo is definitely burned but nothing too bad. “Let’s get both of you to 61-”

“Mackey-” Cruz starts to ask, still talking a little louder than necessary. It wouldn’t surprise him at all if the squad firefighter also ruptured and ear drum.

“She’s fine!” Mouch promises and throws Gallo’s arm over his shoulder. The kid looks wholly confused.

“What’s happening?” he shouts, and the sound of the kids voice hollering in his ears makes his head hurt. He hadn’t been nearly as close to the explosion as Cruz or Gallo, but the blast still did it’s number on his head. 

“Chief, I got Gallo and Cruz,” Mouch says clicking on his radio to let Boden know he found them. “There in one relative piece.”

“Any sign of Severide, Casey, Brett, or Kidd?” Boden replies, he sounds relieved that at least two out of the six MIA firefighters are safe. 

“No sign of them, chief,” Mouch replies looking around the hazy air. The four of them had still been inside when the building went up in flames, so he’s not sure why he’s looking around hoping to see them. There’s a good chance he won’t see any of them ever again, not in one recognizable piece anyway.

***

Brett groans and tries to sit up but there’s something heavy laying on top of her; her head is pounding like nothing she’s ever felt before and she’s not entirely sure she’ll be able to keep herself awake- or even if she wants to try. Everything hurts and the weight bearing down on top of her isn’t helping; it’s not a solid weight like concrete or cement, it’s softer than that… like a body pinning her face first on the ground, but there are things poking her too. She blinks open her eyes and finds herself staring at a hand flopped a couple inches from her face. There’s a yellow reflective strip around the cuff of the thick black coat sleeve that the hand is coming out of. 

“Casey?” she whines and tries to roll to get him off of her, but he’s too heavy. She doesn’t really remember much of anything after sending Mackey up to radio to help, but she’s pretty sure Casey was down here with her, after all it would be him to come get her.

“Casey, please,” she chokes desperately and tries again to wiggle herself free from the weight bearing down on top of her. It’s hard to breath and she’s not sure if it’s from dust and smoke or the body crushing her. She knows just from being around the station that anyone in full bunker gear could easily weigh well over 200 pounds, and if she didn’t believe it before, she definitely does now.

“Casey, wake up,” she gasps, her fear running deeper than just not being able to breathe or being crushed the firefighter laying on top of her. Casey isn’t saying anything or moving, and her mind leaps to the worst possible explanation for it all. 

“Casey! Please!” she begs not really for herself anymore, she just wants him to be okay- to move or talk or just not be dead. She pushes at the ground trying to push his weight off her, but after a couple seconds of struggle she gives up and lets her forehead flop against the rough dirty floor. She has to get out from under him, not so much for herself, but for him. He needs her help. Sucking in a deep breath, Sylvie digs deep and mustering what’s left of her dying strength she uses her legs and arms to push herself onto her side and tip Casey’s dead weight off of her. There’s a heavy thunk as his air tank hits the ground. It’s only as she claws herself upright that she realizes it wasn’t Casey laying on top of her at all. It was Severide.

“Severide?” she chokes and leans over the downed squad lieutenant. She can’t tell if he’s breathing through all of his gear, but it doesn’t look like he is. “Severide, stay with me buddy.”

She presses her fingers against his neck in search of a pulse, he flinches as he hand makes contact with his hot skin.

“Brett?” he groans and blinks his eyes open as he attempts to lift his head off the floor.

“Yeah, it’s me, but take it easy.” It’s hard to tell in nothing but the dim light of his flash light, but she’s pretty sure he has first and possibly second degree burns on the back of his neck. There’s also a deep cut on the side of his ear going from above one eyebrow to the top of his ear. And it’s oozing a significant amount of blood, nothing life threatening at the moment, but it’s also not good.

“I’m fine,” Kelly grunts and pushes her hand away from him as sits up and unbuckles the straps on his air tank.

“You don’t look fine,” Sylvie observes skeptically, but she’s too tired and her head hurts too much to put much effort into her argument. “You got a nasty cut on your head.”

He frowns and gingerly pokes at the side of his bloody head. “It’s just a scratch.”

“Severide can you please just let me look at it?” Sylvie requests. He’s probably a long ways off from passing out of blood loss but it’s better safe than sorry since they appear to be trapped and he’s the one who knows how to get them out.

He sighs and rolling his eyes hands her a flashlight so she can examine his injury better.

“We’re still in the elevator,” he comments as she scoots closer to him.

“We’re in the elevator?” she asks and looks at him in shock. She hadn’t really taken much time to examine her surroundings, but now that he says it… “What happened to the two victims?”

Severide ducks her gaze with a guilty expression. “They were still out there when the explosion happened.”

“You left them!?” Sylvie chokes in a mix of shock and anger. “Sev-”

“It wasn’t like that Brett,” Severide snaps interrupting. “I was the only one down here and the only way I was getting all three up was to put you guys on the elevator. I moved you first because you were the only one who didn’t have air. Then the gas blew.”

Sylvie sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose trying to stave off the pounding in her head; she feels bad for jumping down Kelly’s throat. She should’ve known he wouldn’t leave two victim’s on purpose- really she did know it. Everything is just so scrambled right now and her head feels like it’s going to explode.

“Sylvie, are you okay?” Severide asks with gentle concern and gives her shoulder a little reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah, I’m fine-”

“Lying to each other isn’t going to work, Brett,” he prompts.

“Fine, my head hurts and I feel like I just got crushed by 250 pounds of firefighter,” she says teasingly. She knows Kelly did what he had to, to protect her from the explosion and she’s grateful for it even if she still feels like a pancake.

Severide snorts and shakes his head. “I wasn’t about to let one of my paramedics get baked. Besides Casey would probably kill me if something happened to you.”

“And Stella’ll kill me if I let you bleed out from that head wound,” Sylvie replies and pulls out her pocket knife so she can cut off the long sleeves of her shirt. They’re not the ideal bandaging, but nothing about their situation is ideal and all her supplies are lost somewhere outside the elevator so her sleeves will have to work for now.

***

“You two need to take the next available ambulance to hospital,” Boden says, taking a second to divert his attention from the scene to Cruz and Gallo.

“No way, chief,” Cruz says standing up indignantly, his lieutenant and friends- members of his family are still down there beneath the rubble, and he’s not going anywhere until he knows they’re safe regardless of the pounding in his head and how muffled everything but the ringing in his ears is. Gallo doesn’t say anything to back him, just glances between the two of them looking really confused, and still dazed; Ritter taps him on the shoulder and shows him his phone screen, evidently typing out the conversation because after a second he looks up defiantly at Boden.

“I’m not going anywhere either!” He says a lot louder than he needs to.

“You’re both going to the hospital to get checked out, that’s an order!” Boden shouts, with a kind of foracicity that’s rare for him. “I don’t want to hear any more argument about it! Go with 57.”

“Yes chief,” Cruz mumbles and dips his head submissively before grabbing Gallo by the arm and pulling him up off the back bumper of 61. The truckie tries to pull back, but Cruz tightens his grip and tugs him along. He’s tempted to sneak off and help in the search behind Boden’s back, but if he does that Gallo will follow, and there’s no disputing that he needs to take a trip to the hospital to get his ears checked out.

They haven’t made it far before Gallo gets stumbly like he’s dizzy.

“Hey buddy, we’ll take it slow,” Cruz says comfortingly despite knowing the young firefighter can’t hear him, and puts one of Gallo’s arms over his shoulder to support him.

“Is my hearing going to come back?” Gallo asks, in a loud whisper.

Cruz looks him in the eyes and nods. He’s not really sure if it’s true, he hopes it is. He’d never admit out loud, but Gallo’s a damn good firefighter and a good kid with a bright future in the cfd ahead of him. It’d be awful if hearing loss got him booted. He wishes he could give Gallo more assurance than just the head because he doesn’t look convinced, but any words Cruz tries to say to him will be lost. He gives Gallo another nod yes, and then continues helping him toward the waiting ambulance.

***

“Damn it,” Stella hisses and throws down her halligan, it clatters loudly on the landing of the fifth sublevel, and Casey lifts his head from where he had it rested between his knees to squint at her.

“Should I repeat the speech you gave me?” he says dully, trying and failing to poke fun at her.

“No,” she replies in frustration and sinks to the dirty ground, leaning against the metal door blocked shut by debris.

“What’s eating you, Kidd?” Casey asks, leaning his head against the railing of the stairs.

“I didn’t tell him,” she says, tipping her head back against the cool door.

“Didn’t tell him what?” Casey questions lifting his head up to look at her better.

“My promotion came through and I didn’t Kelly. Which is kinda hypocritical, isn’t it? I’m always trying to get him to tell me stuff, and now I’m doing the same thing he used to do,” she replies sighing heavily. “And now we’re stuck down here, and he’s stuck down here and it’s all so messed up…”

“Your promotion came through?” Casey breathes, like he barely believes it. “Stella that’s great, you can tell Sev when we get out of here. He’ll be thrilled.”

“I don’t know if I’m going to take it,” Stella interrupts him and closes her eyes bracing herself for whatever speech her captain is about to give her. Gallo had a good point this morning. If she doesn’t want to be talked into taking it than that more than likely means she doesn’t want it, and shouldn’t take it.

“You don’t want to leave 51,” Casey says understandingly and rests his chin on his knees. He looks too tired for much speech giving.

“Yeah,” Stella says. 51 has become her family and she can’t even properly process the idea of not working there anymore.

“You haven’t told Sev because you don’t want him to talk into taking it,” Casey adds with a sigh.

“It’s stupid, right? I’ve worked so hard for this and now suddenly I’m thinking about turning it down,” she says in frustration.

“I don’t know, family’s family, Stella. But whatever you want, Kelly will back you. I know that much.”

“I  _ was  _ gonna tell him, you know? We just got this call before I could…”

“He’ll get it,” Casey mumbles and closes his eyes.

“Hey, how’s your head feeling?” Stella asks sitting up straight and examining Casey from where she’s sitting.

“Awful,” Casey mutters.

“We should keep moving,” Stella says. He seems to be getting more drowsy and they should keep moving so he doesn’t have the chance to sleep.

“In a couple minutes.”

“Now captain,” Stella insists and grabbing up her halligan she stands up. She offers Casey her hand. “Come on. Let’s go find our lost lovers.”

Casey cracks a dazed smile and takes her hand.

***

“Looks like we dropped,” Sylvie says, peeking out the hatch in the top of the elevator and scanning the shaft with Severide’s flashlight as she stands on his shoulders. The only number she can see is a six a couple feet above them which means they dropped three floors.

“What’s the closest floor?” Severide grunts through gritted teeth. Holding her up is probably more of a struggle than he’ll admit outloud.

“Six,” Sylvie reports. She can see the doors a couple feet above them.

“How high up is it?” Severide asks.

“Five or six feet,” she calls back.

“That’s doable,” he mumbles to himself like he’s calculating something in his head. “I’m bringing you back down.”

“I’m going to need a knee up from you,” Severide says as soon as Sylvie has her two feet back down on the elevator floor.

“You realize how crazy that sounds, right?” Sylvie asks, not entirely convinced he’s serious.

“Yeah, but I need to get up there,” Severide replies. “Well we both do. But I can’t reach that high without a boost and you can’t pull me up if I send you up first.”

“But you can pull me up,” Sylvie finishes for him. In theory it makes sense, but she’s not entirely sure she’s physically capable of hoisting him up.

“I don’t need much of a boost,” Severide says, eyeing the ceiling. For a guy who has the side of his head sliced open he’s very lively. “Just a push off your knee and then I should be able to reach and pull myself up.” 

Sylvie’s not entirely convinced he can make it, but it’s their only option so they have to try.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure Brett,” Severide says encouragingly and gives her a little pat on the shoulder.

“How’s your head feeling?” Even in the dim light of the elevator she can make fresh blood dripping down the side of his face from under the makeshift bandage wrapped around his head. 

“It’ll be fine,” Severide replies with a nonchalant shrug. “We’ll worry about it once we’re out of this elevator shaft, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” she agrees and getting down so she’s on one knee directly under the roof hatch. “Then let’s hurry up and get out of here.”

“You ready?” 

“Ready,” Sylvie says, and grits her teeth as he puts his boot on her knee and pushes off. His weight is only there for a second and then he’s hanging in the air from the hole in the ceiling, he’s only there for a second before he pulls and wiggles his way up through the hole and disappears.

“Alright, hand me up my halligan,” he says poking his head back through the hole and reaching down to her with one arm. She picks up the heavy metal glorified crow bar and hands it up to him.

“Now it’s your turn.”

She reaches up with her hands and jumps, grabbing Severide’s hands before she falls back down, as she does the whole elevator groans and shifts like it’s about to fall.

“Severide…” Sylvie chokes questioningly, looking up into his face as he starts to pull her up.

“It’s fine, Brett,” he grunts, hauling her up through the hatch. “The elevator’s not going anywhere.”

“You seem pretty sure about that,” she pants as she flops down on the roof of the elevator roof next to Severide.

“As long as we get out of here quickly, we’ll be fine,” he says standing up and studying the door to the shaft next a couple feet above them.

“What if it falls?” she asks, unsure about the stability of the structure they’re standing on.

“We’ll be out of here before that happens,” he promises, but it sounds a little like he’s trying to convince more than just her. “I just gotta get that door open, which shouldn’t be too difficult.”

***

“Got it,” Severide says triumphantly and pushes his halligan down between the doors of the elevator to stop them from closing again. He knows this elevator predicament isn’t even half the struggle they have ahead of them, they still have six stories worth of rubble they have to make their way up, but he lets himself revel in the small victory a little. 

Brett gives him a congratulatory pat on the back and a weak smile; he’s pretty sure she’s hurting more than she’s letting on which makes two of them. His head hurts and the burns under his coat are hurting a little more with each passing minute, but he’s gotta keep it together and get them out of this mess.

“Ladies first,” he says and intertwines his hands to make a step for the paramedic to give her a little boost up. She probably doesn’t  _ really  _ need it, but it’ll help her out and make it easier on her.

“Thanks Kelly,” she replies and steps into his hands and clammers through the elevator doors as he gives her a little push. Kelly pulls himself up after her and pulls the halligan free from the doors as he clears the door frame. 

The air is thick and hazy with smoke and he can see the red flicker of fire coming from a couple places around them. 

“How are we going to get out of this?” Sylvie breathes hopeless and glances over at him with scared blue eyes.

“One step at a time, Sylvie,” Kelly replies and tucks one arm around her shoulders to pull her into a reassuring hug. “We got this, okay? It’ll be a walk in the park.”

Brett lets out an amused snort and shakes her head, but doesn’t look encouraged.

“Come on, you were a farm kid. It’ll be like climbing around in a hay loft,” Kelly adds, trying to encourage her. “It’ll be fun.”

This time he gets a real smile out of her.

“See? You just gotta think of it as something less scary than it actually is. It won’t get in your head that way.”

“Do you realize how long it’s been since I climbed in a hay loft?” she asks.

“Isn’t that one of those things they say is like riding a bike?” Severide jokes.

“Guess we’ll find out,” Brett says through gritted teeth and puts on her determined face.

“Here, put this on,” Kelly says and plops his helmet down on top of Brett’s head. It’s a too big and falls over her face. 

She pushes it back up with a grin on her face. “Does this make me a member of the squad?”

“An honorary one, sure,” Kelly says and adjusts the interior head band on the helmet so it will stay put on her head. “And put these on,” he adds, handing her his gloves. “There’s all kinds of stuff laying around you don’t need to be cutting your hands on.”

His gloves are absolutely too big for her, but there’s no adjusting them so they’ll have to do.

“Okay, let’s get out of this hell hole,” Sylvie says, slipping her hands into his gloves.

***

“Maybe there’s a way we could keep you at 51,” Casey says as they make their way further down the stairs. They’re almost to the sixth sublevel now and he’s not entirely sure he’s going to have the energy to climb back up through all the rubble when they finally figure a way out of the staircase. His head is pounding and the edges of his vision are getting blurry; on top of that his whole body is aching from the tumble down the stairs he and Stella took. He’s sure she’s hurting too, but she seems to be keeping it under wraps better than he is.

“If you’re suggesting I try to talk Herrmann into retiring, you hit your head harder than I thought you did,” Stella replies glancing over at him.

“That’s not what I was suggesting. I was just saying there might be someway, because believe me, nobody wants you to go anywhere, but you also shouldn’t pass up this amazing opportunity.”

“It’s a nice thought, but I don’t really see a way for me to stay and get my promotion,” she says as they both come to a stop on the landing of sixth sublevel.

“Frame’s bent,” Casey points out after briefly scanning the door.

“Yeah, but there’s nothing on the other side blocking it,” Stella says peaking through the window. “We might be able to bust it open.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Casey adjusts the grip on his halligan. Everything hurts and he’s sure that if not for the adrenaline pumping through his body and his need to find Brett he’d be passed out by now. They have to get through the door and they have to get back up to the third floor.

“Am I being a complete idiot for thinking about turning this promotion down?” Stella asks and slams her shoulder into the door in an attempt to bust it open.

“I don’t know, Kidd,” Casey says and moves to stand next to her so he can help try to force the door free. He doesn’t want Stella to transfer out, her loves her like family and 51 wouldn’t be the same without her. But it’s not his place to tell her that. Sometimes people just have to spread their wings and fly, and he doesn’t want to hinder that by telling her his feelings. “I guess, the way I see it is, are you going to regret it if you don’t take it.”

“You ready?” 

“Ready.”

They both hit the door at the sametime and Casey can feel it give a little. He can also feel the jar sent up through his body that makes his vision go blurry for a second until he blinks his eyes clear again.

“I don’t know is the thing,” she says through gritted teeth and hits the door with the head of her halligan. 

“You could always take it, and then when a position opens up at 51 transfer back,” Casey suggests. “Ready?”

“Ready,” They hit the door again and this time it screeches a little as it gives a little more. “I guess I could do that.”

“And it’s not like you’ll leave and never see us again.”

“It’ll just be weird being away from you guys is all.”

“Personally, making the switch to leader would probably be easier when you don’t know the crew. People don’t try to pull the friend card to get away with stuff. Like when I first made the switch to lieutenant me and Sev’s old buddy Darden was the worst about that kind of thing,” Casey says. Andy has always been a bit of a piece of work; he was a goof and one hell of a firefighter but he always had that little bit of bull headed defiance where he’d dive into any situation head first without much of a second thought. He was never unmanageable though, he just never quite got used to the idea of taking orders from his best friend and in the end it got him killed. Matt’s always wondered if it was someone else up on that ladder with Andy giving orders if he’d still be alive. “Besides, finding a new crew could be fun.”

Stella looks him in the eyes, but doesn’t say a word as she slams her foot into the door and forces it open. “Let’s go find Sylvie and Kelly.”

***

“I need a breather,” Sylvie huffs as Kelly helps her scramble up a leaned over pillar of concrete creating a kind of ramp to the next level of the parking garage. She doesn’t really need a breather, but she can tell he does and there’s no way he’s actually going to take one for himself. She wants to get out of this smokey and dusty air making her lungs burn and her chest tight, and she wants to stop feeling so trapped, but Severide needs a rest and the only way to get him to take one is for her to say she needs one.

“We can’t rest long, we gotta get out of this smoke,” he says, shining his flashlight around them. “And we’ve still got a good three or four stories to go.”

“I know, I just need a minute.”

“Hey, you’re doing great. At this rate we’ll be up and out in no time,” Severide promises and gives her a little pat on the shoulder.

“How's your head feeling?” she asks, from what she can tell there’s no fresh blood dripping down the side of the lieutenant’s head anymore, it’s all dry and crusty now.

“It’s still fine, Brett,” he replies.

“And you wouldn’t tell me if it wasn’t,” Sylvie says flattly.

“Bingo,” Severide chuckles with a playful wink. “You ready to get going again?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she sighs. It’s probably best they hurry up and get out of here and get him up to the surface, then Stella can yell at him to take care of himself. Sylvie doesn’t have the energy right now.

They’re about to pick up and start moving again when Severide’s radio crackles and Casey’s voice sounds over it. ‘Does anyone copy’ is the only thing Sylvie gets from his transmission through all the static and popping, but he sounds exhausted and even a little scared.

“This is Severide, Casey I copy,” Severide says, clicking on his mic. “Casey can you hear me?”

_ “Sev-”  _ is all they get in response before the radio cuts out again.

“Casey, we are on the 4th sublevel. I have Brett. Do you copy?” Severide says loudly. 

_ “Below… stay put…”  _

“Case, repeat that,” Severide says looking to Brett in confusion. They get no reply. “Casey, do you copy?”’

There’s still nothing but static as they wait in silence for Casey to repeat himself.

“Damn concrete,” Severide spits angrily and slaps the ground. “Casey do you copy?”

“What did he mean ‘stay put’?” Brett asks, looking around them. They have to get out of here, staying put isn’t an option.

“I don’t know, I don’t even know if that’s what he said,” Severide replies in frustration. “We gotta get out of here.”

“But what if he did say to stay where we are? There could be a fire above us or something.”

She wants to get out of here, probably more than Severide does, but if Casey told them to stay where they are, he probably has a good reason.

“I’m not sitting around down here on my ass, Brett. We need to get out of here, and you need to get your lungs checked out because of all that gas you inhaled,” Severide says. “Now let’s get out of here.”

Sylvie decides not to argue with the squad lieutenant and follows him as he heads off into the darkness without another word.

***

“I’m sick of trying to get this damn thing to work,” Stella says and shoves her radio back into her radio pocket.

“Kidd, take a breath,” Casey says quietly and sits down on a piece of debris. His head is spinning and he’s not sure how much longer he’s going to be able to hold out. He hadn’t been able to make out much of what Severide said, but he got the part about him having Brett which means she’s safe. There’s no one better and more likely to get her out of this than Kelly. 

Stella shakes her head and cups her hands around her mouth. “KELLY!”

“Kidd! Enough!” Casey snaps, her shout is the last straw. He can’t take it anymore; he feels like his head is about to explode. “He’s fine. Him and Brett will get out of here on their own. We just have to find our own way out. Okay? So please, quit yelling.”

Stella stops and her expression softens. “Casey, you don’t look so good.”

“I’ll be fine if you just take it down a notch,” Casey replies softly. He’s not sure if that’s true. He’s exhausted and now that he knows Brett is safe with Severide he’s not sure if he can still find the same drive to climb his way out of here.

***

“Joe!” 

Joe flinches a little at the sound of his wife’s shrill worried cry as she comes through the doors of the hospital, eyes wide and scared.

“Chloe!” He calls and stands up to greet her.

“Joe, are you okay? I saw the collapse on the news and then the hospital called-”

“I’m fine,” he promises, interrupting her and wraps his wife in his arms. “I ruptured one of my ear drums, but other than that I’m fine.”

“You did what?!”

“It’s okay, the doctor said it’ll heal in a week or so. I’m okay, Chloe.”

“You promise?” she says and cups his cheeks in her soft hands.

“Yes,” Joe replies softly and grabs one of his wife’s small hands. “I promise

“Well you look like a mess,” she says scoldingly and brushes off the top of his head. She’s starting to relax a little. “What happened?”

“It was a gas leak, something sparked it and the whole place came down.”

“Is everyone okay?” 

Cruz ducks his head. When he left Casey, Kidd, Severide, and Brett were all still down there and unaccounted for. He should’ve never let Severide keep going by himself.

“Oh baby…” Chloe breathes. 

“Casey, Kidd, Severide and Brett were still missing when I left,” he mumbles, and keeps his gaze on the floor. He can’t lose any of them; he won’t be able to take it.

“Come here,” Chloe whispers and pulls him close to her, tucking his head into her shoulder. “They’re all tough, they’ll be okay. They’ll be okay.”

***

“Is there any word from the hospital on Gallo?” Ritter asks, taking a second to stop and talk to Boden. He knows the chief is very busy, but he at least has to try to get an update on his friend’s condition. He’d walked to the ambo himself, which is a good sign, but he looked like he’d been struggling.

“Yes, he’s going to be fine,” Boden says before returning his attention back to the radio and three in coming truck companies. Ritter turns away and leaves the chief to his business, that’s all he needed to hear, just a simple yes.

“Hey, Ritter, get over here!” Herrmann calls and waves him over to 51. “Grab a hose bundle. We’re heading to the delta side to help engine 18 knock down some flare ups they have over there.”

“You got it,” Gallo says and pulls a bundle off the engine. “Do you know what the word is on Captain Casey and them?”

“Yeah, squad 6 is coming to assist. Capp and Tony are planning on saddling up and going down with them,” Herrmann says, pulling his own pack of the truck. “Don’t worry about them. They’re nothin’ but a group of stubborn bastards. They’ll be fine.”

From the look of things Ritter isn’t so sure about that, but his lieutenant seems pretty sure of himself and not worried, so the best Darren can do is trust him. There’s not time to worry right now.

***

“I need a breather,” Sylvie pants and flops down on the hard ground. This time she needs it for herself. It feels like they’ve been going for hours, and the going has been slow and hard. She’s exhausted and everything hurts.

“Okay, take your time,” Severide replies and sits down next to her. He seems relieved that she’s asking for a break. “I’m going to try to get Casey on the radio again.”

“Okay,” she mumbles without picking herself up. She wishes Severide could just carry her the rest of the way out. They have at least two more floors to climb and then navigate their way out of whatever rubble is sitting on the surface.

“This is Severide, does anyone copy?” Kelly says, keying his radio.

“I read you Sev,” Comes a response from Casey. There’s a little static and interference, but for the most part the Captain’s transmission comes through loud and clear. Sylvie lets out a sigh of relief, it’s good to hear his voice again; he sounds exhausted, but he’s okay. “What floor are you on?”

“Probably two, but I’m not exactly sure.” Severide sounds so relieved. “Are you sending people down to find us?”

“Negative, me and Kidd are a floor below you. We can’t get contact with the surface.”

“What the hell are you doing below us?” Severide demands, losing his calm at the mention of Stella.

“We came to get you,” Casey replies. “Stay where you are so Kidd and I can catch up, and activate your pass.”

Severide lets out a frustrated sigh before replying to his friend. “Copy that Captain.”

***

Stella hears Kelly’s pass device long before she sees him, but when she finally gets eyes on him it’s like seeing him for the first time in what feels like forever. He’s banged up and looks exhausted, but he’s okay. He’s okay.

“I was so scared,” she breathes as they meet in the darkness of the parking garage.

“I know,” he whispers and wraps his arms around her. “I’m okay.”

“No more building collapses,” Stella says, resting her chin on Severide’s shoulder. It’s so good to have him back.

“I wish I had a say in the matter,” Kelly replies and pulls away from her. “Now we just need to get out of here.”

They both glance over at Casey and Brett who are still celebrating being reunited with a passionate kiss.

“Hey, love birds, we should probably get going,” Severide calls and throws a pebble at Casey’s head. Casey holds up his middle finger, and doesn’t stop kissing Brett. Stella can’t help but laugh at the shocked look that comes across Kelly’s face at being flipped off by Matt. For the first time since this whole mess started she doesn’t feel completely on edge. “I can’t believe you guys actually came down to get us.”

“We were heading down when the place went up,” Stella explains. “We knew there was no way you were getting three victims up by yourself.”

“You guys are crazy,” Kelly says shaking his head.

“That’s what love does to you,” Stella replies and gives him a quick kiss on the lip.

“Okay, we’re ready,” Casey says, finally breaking away from Brett. “Let’s get the hell out of this hellhole.”

***

“Have you heard any word from squad 6?” Ritter asks Mouch as he helps him set up the scene lights on 81; the sun is setting fast and they don’t long to get the lights on. It’s been well over an hour since the members of squad six and squad three went into the collapsed parking garage to look for the four missing firefighters from 51.

“Not as far as I’ve heard,” he replies glancing over his shoulder at the smoking mountain of rubble. “Radio contact is gonna be rough, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t hear anything until they come out.”

“How are you and Herrmann so calm about this?” Ritter finally asks as Mouch fires up the generator.

“We’ve been around a long time, kiddo,” Mouch replies and hooks his thumbs into his suspenders with satisfaction as the scene lights click on, lighting up the darkening air around them. “But don’t mistake our calm for not caring. It’s killing us not knowing as much as it’s killing you.”

“Hey! We’ve got movement near the entrance!” Herrmann shouts as he runs past Mouch and Ritter. Darren can hear the excitement in his lieutenant’s voice. “And chief’s got squad six on the radio! They’ve got our people!”

Ritter looks to Much half a second and then follows after his lieutenant; he can hear Mouch running after him. By the time they reach what used to be the entrance of the parking garage the members of squad six are already emerging from the rubble, Severide, Casey, Kidd, and Brett with them.

“Come’er you idiots,” Herrmann says lovingly and somehow manages to grab all four of them in the same hug. Darren joins them, relieved to see all four of them okay and in one relative piece; when Mouch catches up he joins in the hug. Herrmann is the first one to break from the group hug and shoos Mouch and Darren back a little. “Let’s get you guys to an ambulance.”

***

“Hey, you escaped the scene,” Casey says as Boden knocks on the door to his hospital room. Dr. Halstead had checked him for a concussion, which apparently does have, and then insisted he spend the night for observation. His head still hurts, but the fluids they have him are helping a little.

“The district chief took over the scene, and told me to come be with my people,” Boden replies, closing the door behind him.

“I may have gotten my bell rung pretty good, but I haven’t forgotten about our conversation this morning,” Casey says, holding his chief’s gaze. The man laughs nervously and nods his head.

“I didn’t think you would,” he says, a mix of amusement and sadness coming across his face. 

“Come on chief, what’s eating you?” Casey presses.

“There’s a chief’s exam coming up in a couple months and I want you to take it,” Boden replies.

“And leave 51?” Casey asks. Being completely honest he thought it was a little crazy that Stella wanted to turn down her promotion to stay at 51, he understood it. It just seemed wrong, but now that he might be facing the exact same decision he’s pretty sure he’s about to do the same.

“No,” Boden replies calmly. “And take over 51.”

“ _ What?” _

“I’m not as young as I once was,” Boden says. “And I’m not getting any younger. I’m ready to retire, but I want to leave the house in good hands, and I know you’ll take care of it.”

Casey doesn’t even know what to say.

***

“Oh that’s gonna scar,” Stella says, slipping into Kelly’s exame room as April finishes giving him stitches. She didn’t really realize how big the cut in the side of his head was until now.

“Shut up,” he says flatley.

“No, it’s a clean cut, and I’m great at making my stitches pretty and neat,” April says, and starts wrapping his head. “You don’t have to worry about your pretty face.”

“I think it’d be hot,” Stella says with a shrug and plops herself down on the exam table next to him as the nurse finishes up.

“Dr. Choi wants to keep you overnight for observation. I’ll come back and get you when we have a room for you,” April says, getting ready to duck out of the room.

“Thanks April!” Kelly calls after as she closes the curtain behind her. “You were kidding about it scaring, right?”

“Your hair will cover most of it up,” Stella says lovingly and kisses him on the cheek.

“Hey, what’d you want to talk about earlier?” he asks, looking over at her.

“Oh.” She wasn’t really expecting to tell him about the promotion just yet, but she’s not going to lie to him, and she does need to tell him. “I got offered a lieutenant’s position at another house.”

Kelly raises both eyebrows in a mix of excitement and surprise. “Stella-”

“I don’t know if I’m going to take it,” she blurts, interrupting him.

“Of course you are! You worked so hard for this, and if you turn it down they’ll bump you to the bottom of the list,” Kelly says, looking more confused now.

“Kelly, I don’t want to leave 51. It’s my home, my family.”

The confusion leaves his face and he closes his mouth.

“And I haven’t made up my mind yet either.”

“Stella Kidd,” Kelly starts, and takes her hand in his. “You are the most deserving person in the world of this promotion, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of you. And whatever you decide I will still be proud of you.”

Stella smiles at him, and for the first time since getting that letter her insides don’t feel like they’re twisted up in nights. “Thank you Kelly.”

***

_ Two days later… _

“Case that’s huge,” Kelly says, taking his cigar out of his mouth, Benny and Grissom had always wanted him to shoot for chief, but it was never something Kelly wanted or even something he could see himself doing. Casey on the other hand, Casey was born to be chief; he’s got the head for it and that little bone in him that can play politics. Kelly’s definitely with Boden, the best person to take over the house is Casey. “What’d you tell him?”

“Nothing,” Casey says staring out into space. “I didn’t know what to say.”

“You’ve gotta take it. You were born for the job, and there’s no one better out there to take over the house. You know how things work there,” Severide replies. “Tell me you haven’t ever thought about it?”

“I mean yeah, I’ve  _ thought  _ about it, but not in a way like it’s a reality,” Matt says and takes a puff of his cigar.

“Have you talked to Brett about it?” Kelly asks.

“Yeah, she thinks I should take it too.”

“She’s a wise woman, that one,” Kelly laughs

Casey sighs. “I kind of have to do this, don’t I?”

“Only a crazy person’d turn it down,” Kelly jokes and nudges his friend with his elbow. Having Casey as a chief would change things drastically, not just for the two of them, but for the whole house, but it’s better than having an outsider come in.

“Then maybe I will,” Casey snorts. “You seem to think I’m pretty crazy.”

“Case, I’m serious. You’d be a great chief, and do you really want someone coming in and taking over the house? Boden built the house to what it is today, and I think he always had one of us leading it some day as his end goal. We both know that was always gonna be you. He trusts you with everything he has worked to build,” Severide says firmly. “At least consider it, and consider what will happen if you don’t take his offer.”

Casey turns his gaze away from Kelly and stares out into the distance, deep in thought as he puts his cigar back in his mouth.

“And I’ll back you all the way,” Kelly adds.

***

“Chief, you have a second?” Boden looks up to see Casey poking his head into his office.

“Of course,” Wallace replies and stands up to greet the truck captain. He knows the chief pitch was a lot to throw at him, but he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t have absolute faith in Casey’s ability to lead the house. There’s not a single better person he can think of to do it. Ever since Matt Casey was a probie Wallace had a feeling he’d one day grow to take his job.

“I’ve decided,” Casey says holding his gaze, the captain looks a little like he’s about to jump off a bridge. “I’m going to throw my hat in the ring for battalion chief.”


	3. Watch It

_ Six months later… _

Inside the house is so chock full of nervous energy, it practically feels like the whole place is full of static electricity, the apartment was almost worse. Between it being Casey's first shift as acting chief and it being Stella’s first shift as truck lieutenant there’s enough raw energy to power the city for like a month, not to mention everyone else being nervous to see how things will. And frankly, Kelly finds it stressful to be around. He’s given Stella three pep talks this morning, and now it’s time for him to sit back and let her be her and kick ass. The most relaxing place to be in the station right now is seated comfortably in his chair at the squad table.

“Excuse me, I was told to report to 51 as my assignment…”

Severide jumps a little at the sound of the voice behind him and spins his chair around to find himself looking across the bay at a familiar face. It’s been a long time since he’s actually seen the kid- Nathan had called him and asked to put him down as a reference on his CFD application, but the last thing Kelly ever expected was for him to actually get assigned to 51.

“Oh hey Kelly! I didn’t realize that was you!” Nathan says, immediately loosening up.

“That’s lieutenant Severide to you, candidate,” Severide says in the most serious tone he can muster. It’s so incredibly hard not to run over and give him a hug. He’s grown up so much since that day Kelly saved him out of the tipped over backhoe.

“Oh-” Nathan says, flustered and visibly distressed by Kelly’s comment. “Sorry-”

“I’m just messing with you,” Kelly chuckles and waves him over. The kid instantly looks relieved and hurries across the ap floor to get to Kelly. “Everyone’s gonna be thrilled to see you. Come on.”

They’ve barely made it through the doors before Herrmann sees Nathan. Kelly was hoping to get him in and get him to Stella and Casey before everyone mobbed, but it’s too late for that now.

“I’ll be damned! The savior of 51!” Herrmann cries. “Get over here!”

Nathan looks hesitantly up at Severide. 

“The lieutenant wants to see you,” Severide says with a nod.

“Get in there!” Herrmann says ushering the new candidate into the common room. Severide follows from a couple feet behind. “Mouch! Cruz! Look who it is! It’s the savior of 51!”

“I don’t believe it! Hey kid!” Mouch says, getting off the couch to greet him.

Ritter and Gallo exchange confused looks.

“Back a long time ago, this lady tried to get 51 closed down, and this little bastard arranged a protest and saved the house!” Herrmann explains and throws an arm around his shoulders. Severide can see him blushing.

“He’s still gotta report in with Casey and Kidd,” Severide says to Herrmann, who inhales sharply.

“Hey, chief wants everyone in the briefing room,” Stella says poking her head into the common room. She looks a little less terrified than she did this morning, but she still sounds nervous.

Casey looks tense, like what he looked like when he got promoted to captain, but 10 times worse. Kelly feels a little bad for him; over the past couple months leading up to this, Boden put Casey in a charge of a lot of things to help prepare him for this. He’s ready for this, but Severide isn’t sure if Casey knows that.

“So we all know I’m no good at speeches,” Casey says as soon as everyone’s in the room. “So I’m not really going to try. There’s just a couple things we need to go over before we get started for the day-”

The bell rings and interrupts Casey mid sentence, and Severide can’t help but be a little amused, the city really is going to throw everything it’s got at him on his first day.

_ “Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, ambulance 61, Battalion 25, multi vehicle wreck Dan Ryan Expressway.” _

“You got this Case,” Severide says and slaps Casey on the shoulder as they all head to the trucks. Casey glares at him.

***

Stella pulls herself up into the front passenger seat of 81; it’s weird not climbing into the driver's seat. The space in front of her seems empty and new. Mouch climbs into the driver seat a couple seconds later and 81 rumbles to life. 

“Okay, candidate, we're going to be riding into a mess,” Stella calls over her shoulder to the newest member of truck, who looks more excited than nervous or scared. “Highway wrecks can be more dangerous than fires. You gotta worry about the wreck and the cars passing by. I want you to stay with Mouch the whole call. Don’t leave his side for any reason. Got it?”

“Yes, lieutenant,” he says, his voice quivering with excitement.

“How many cars are we looking at with this?” Gallo asks, shifting in his seat.

“It’s looking like it’s going to be a pile up,” Stella says scrolling through the report coming on the truck computer. “There’s already two other battalions on scene.”

This is going to be a mess. She’d been hoping for a relatively calm shift as her first shift as lieutenant, but of course, almost predictably so, the universe had other plans.

***

The road is a mess as far as Matt can see, and the air is thick and hazy with smoke and exhaust from the endless expanse of cars spread across the highway as he steps out of his car. He takes a second to take in their section of the scene before reaching into his chief’s buggy and grabs his white helmet. It’s like a lonely silent coronation on a battlefield. He’s chief now. It didn’t feel real a couple minutes ago, but it does now as his crews arrive on scene behind him, red lights flashing and sirens screaming into the cool air.

***

“51 I want lines ready incase any of these cars flare up, 81 have your extinguishers on stand by and start extrication, Squad help with extrication. 61, start setting up for triage, and we need an LZ set up incase we need to call in a chopper,” Casey is barking orders almost before everyone is off the trucks. Stella is honestly a little surprised with how quickly their new chief was able to find his stride. With his calm and collected nature that seemed lost only a couple minutes before the call, the white helmet suits him.

“Mouch set up the LZ and keep Nathan with you, then start trying to see who all you can get out without extrication tools and send them to triage, Gallo get the spreaders and cutters off the truck, me and you are working heavy duty tools,” Stella orders, taking command of her crew.

***

“Anything off you see comes through me,” Casey says as people begin to break up to carry out orders. “Tanker trunks, anything that could be hauling hazards, I need to know about it.”

“You got it chief,” Severide says as he moves past him.

“Battalion 25 to main, request for additional med units and a water tanker to my location,” Casey says switching his radio over to main.

_ “Acknowledged.” _

“Chief, we got a gasoline tanker about 100 yards down,” Severide’s voice sounds over the radio.

“Copy that, I’m sending a line down,” Casey replies and turns to Herrmann. “I want a line on that tanker in case a spark decides to make things exciting.”

“You got it, pull,” the lieutenant says and grabs Ritter. “Pull the three inch and get it to that tanker. I’ll be behind you with the wye and two sections of one and a half inch.” 

The young engine firefighter is small, but he can run hoses better than anyone Casey’s ever seen. Herrmann made the right choice in having Boden bring him on.

“All units, I want the cars closest to that tanker cleared first,” Matt calls over the radio. “Clear out from there.”

_ “Main to battalion 25.” _

“Battalion 25, go ahead main,” Casey says, studying the mess spread out before his eyes. 

_ “Your extra med units are inbound, but we have a delay on that tanker.” _

Casey lets out an angry huff of air before replying to the dispatcher. “I need that tanker. We’ve got an overturned gasoline truck here. We need more water.”

_ “Understood, eta is 20 minutes.” _

Casey clenches his jaw in frustration, when his gaze settles on the new truck candidate. “Candidate, find a hydrant,” Casey orders, and Nathan freezes like a deer caught in headlights. “What’s the matter?”

“Lieutenant told me to stay with Mouch…” he says nervously.

“And I’m telling you to find a hydrant,” Casey snaps, not in the mood to get in a debate with a candidate. 

“Yes sir,” the kid chokes out and takes off at a run down the empty road behind them.

“Kidd, I sent Marks to find a hydrant. We’re going to need it if that tanker goes. Mouch is headed your way.”

***

“Damn it,” Stella hisses as Casey updates her on his relocation of her candidate.

“What’s wrong?” Kelly asks, over hearing her angry noise.

“I had Nathan with Mouch for a reason,” she says flatley. Firstly no candidate should be running off on their own, and there’s a lot for him to learn from shadowing Mouch, especially on a call like this.

“Chiefs are gonna be chiefs,” is all Kelly says in reply, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder at the tanker truck. 

Stella’s not happy about Casey’s decision to move her guy, but that truck goes and engine doesn’t have a hydrant, they're all screwed.

“We got a spark!” Herrmann shouts and no less than a couple seconds later one of the cars next to the overturned gasoline truck goes up in flames.

“Son of a bitch!” Kelly hisses and ducks grabbing Stella by the coat and pulling her with him.

Stella shakes herself free from his grip as she recovers from the wave of heat that hit them.

“Your probie better hurry up and find a hydrant, or we’re all toast,” Kelly comments under his breath and then ducks off to help Cruz.

“”Lieutenant, foams mixed in we’re clear to spray,” Ritter calls and picks up one of the lines they have stretched.

“Marks, any luck on a hydrant?” Stella asks, keying her radio. The water in 51 is probably enough to put out the car fire, but if spreads to the truck leaking fuel onto the road, they’re going to need the hydrant.

***

“I’ve got a hydrant.” Nathan replies to his lieutenant, his heart pounding in his throat. He can see smoke rising in the air from the wreck down the road from him. Every part of him is itching to be back at the scene helping.

“Ritter’s coming to you with a supply line,” Lieutenant Kidd says. “Hang tight at the hydrant until he gets to you.”

“Yes lieutenant.”

***

“Lieutenant, the driver’s still in this truck!” Capp calls from a good 20 feet away where he’s standing next to cab of the tipped over truck.

Stella can see Kelly freeze and look up from what he’s doing with Cruz. Casey freezes too and the chief and lieutenant make eye contact. It’s always baffled Stella how the two of them communicate on a scene; they have their own silent language. They just seem to know exactly what the other one is thinking.

“You have like two minutes, Severide,” Casey says, answering the question Kelly never asked.”Engine, keep that line on the fire, everyone else it’s time to pull back.”

“I’m not going anywhere until Kelly and Cruz are out of there,” Stella says, it’s always a risky move defying Casey, and it’s probably a thousand times worse to do it now on his first day as chief.

“Lieutenant, I said pull back,” Casey snaps, pinning her down with a glare.

Stella clenches her jaw angrily, but obeys.

_ “51 is hooked up!”  _ Ritter’s voice comes over the radio.

“Run another line up here,” Casey replies.

_ “Copy that, chief.” _

***

“Kidd, I need to see you in my office,” Casey says before Stella even has her feet on the ground back at the station.

“Aw, somebody’s in trouble,” Kelly teases and pokes her in the side as she walks past him.

“Don’t even joke,” she replies and follows Casey to his office.

“What’s up Chief?” She asks, closing his office door behind her.

“I can’t have my officers second guessing my orders on a call,” he says bluntly, and folds his arms over his chest. “I know you care about Severide, but that doesn’t mean you get to undermine my authority.”

“Yes, Chief,” Stella says, biting back the urge to argue.

“Further more, this isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation,” Casey adds. “Can I count on you to lead? Being a leader you have to put personal feelings aside for the sake of the team.”

“Excuse me?” Stella replies, raising an eyebrow at her chief.

Casey shakes his head. “Don’t challenge my orders again.”

“Yes sir,” Stella says stiffly.

***

“Gallo, Mouch, Marks, on the Ap floor. We’re doing drills,” Stella says blowing through the common room like a storm.

“But I was helping Ritter with dinner-” Gallo starts to say, making Ritter wonder once again if his friend actually knows the tiniest thing about reading situations, because if he did Darren is about 90% he would not have just tried to argue with Lieutenant Kidd. It’s obvious she’s pissed about something and looking to blow off steam.

“App floor, now. 50 push ups,” the lieutenant snaps.

Gallo opens his mouth, and Ritter elbows him in an attempt to save him from getting his head bitten off.

“Just go,” he whispers to his friend, who thankfully complies without another word. 

As soon as all the truck members have emptied out of the common Severide and Herrmann whistle in unison.

“Heaven help their souls,” Herrmann says, shaking his head and looking back to his book. Severide looks a little more concerned and lets his gaze linger on the door to the bay before returning his attention to his crossword puzzle.

“You guys, did you know Mouch could still do push ups?” Cruz asks coming into the common room a couple minutes later with a grin on his face. Tony and Capp aren’t far behind him. “And lieutenant, Stella should become a drill sergeant.”

Severide leans back in his chair and frowns. “What’re they doing out there?”

“When we left, push ups,” Cruz says, plopping down on the couch. “We decided to head inside before she tried to make us do em too.”

Severide doesn’t say anything, he just gets up and leaves the room.

“Hey, Ritter, what’s for dinner?” Cruz asks and changes the tv channel.

“Hey!” Herrmann protests looking up from his book.

“Oh come on! You weren’t even watching!” Cruz protests.

“No, but I was listening!” The engine lieutenant argues. “Switch it back!”

“No, you and Mouch always watch what you want to. I’m watching what I want to while he’s out doing drills.

***

“Hey, chief, you want a smoke?” Kelly offers, poking his head into Casey’s office. He can see the chief is busy and absolutely buried in paperwork.

“Maybe in like five years after I have all this crap filled out,” Casey replies, shuffling papers on his desk.

“I’ll save you a cigar then,” Kelly replies with a chuckle. It’s like when Casey got promoted to captain, but worse. He feels bad for him, but it’s a little amusing.

“Don’t laugh! This isn’t funny!” Casey snaps, but for the first time since this morning he seems more at ease and a little amused.

“Sorry Case, but it is a little.”

“You better watch it! I’ll promote you so fast just so you have to deal with this crap too!”

Severide raises both hands defensively. “I will just go back to my office. No need you for you to do anything drastic. I apologize your majesty.”

“No, it’s fine. I honestly thought you were coming in here to try to fight me about Stella,” Casey says and leans back in his chair.

“I wasn’t aware that was something that needed to be done,” Kelly says and steps all the way into the office and closes the door behind.

“It’s not. She argued with an order on the call, I told her not to let it happen again,” Casey replies.

***

Casey is grateful when Severide nods understandingly and doesn’t immediately jump to Kidd’s defence.

“It’s not my job to fight her battles for her, even if I want to,” Severide says and leans against the door frame. “She doesn’t need me to come in and rescue her. But there’s a lot going on in this house. There’s a lot of new stuff to get used to. It’s a learning curve for everyone, don’t forget that Casey.”

Casey sighs. While he can’t be having his officers second guessing him on calls, Severide does have a point. But he can’t let people get comfortable with disobeying orders or arguing. He let that happen years and years ago with Andy, and he died because of it.

“Thanks Sev,” Matt says.

“Yeah, and hey I can make Capp and Tony come help you with paper work if you want,” Severide offers, opening the door again.

“That’s really generous of you, Kelly. Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Severide says with a cheeky grin.

“Get the hell out,” Casey laughs and makes a shooing motion with one hand.

“Yes, chief,” Severide laughs and ducks out of the room.

Casey sighs and returns his attention to his mountains of paperwork, and remembers what he was about to do before they even got called out to the freeway wreck “Oh, hey Kelly wait!”

“Yes sir?” Severide says spinning on his heals and standing to attention.

“First if you don’t stop mocking you I’m going to write you up for being disrespectful,” Casey laughs.

“Sir, yes sir,” Severide replies and solutes.

“I’m going to kill you,” Casey shakes his head.

“I’ll tell the union,” Kelly snaps back quickly. “I think chiefs murdering firefighters is frowned upon.”

“Oh, they’ll side with me when they find out how annoying you’re being- no, can you get Nathan Marks and send him in.”

“Wow I’ve been demoted to erond boy-”

Casey glares at Severide.

“Yeah I’ll go get him,” Kelly laughs. “Is that all you wanted?”

“Yes, now go away!” Casey replies through a laugh. He’s grateful Kelly was able to make up for them not being able to go smoke. His messing, even if it was a little extra than normal, made things feel at least a little normal again.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Nathan asks, knocking on the door frame of Casey’s office a couple minutes after Kelly left.

“Yes, I did,” Casey says and stands up. “Your proper introduction to the house got a little interrupted this morning, and I personally didn’t get to extend a proper welcome. So I’m doing it now.”

“Oh, thank you chief,” Nathan replies. It still feels weird being called chief. Like it doesn’t quite fit. “It’s an honor to be here serving with you guys. This house did so much for me.”

“And what you did for it hasn’t gone forgotten either,” Casey replies with a fond smile. The kid standing before him saved this house. “I was thrilled when they told me we’d be getting you. Let me know if there’s anything you need.”

***

“You wanna unscrew the screws on the probie’s bed tonight?” Gallo asks coming back in from doing drills and grabbing an apple.

“No…” Ritter replies slowly. “That would be mean.”

“No, it’d be hilarious, that’s what it would be,” Gallo says around a mouthful of apple. “We gotta do some messing with the new guy.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea right now, though?” Darren asks. He mostly doesn’t want to do anything mean to the candidate on his first day, but everything also seems really on edge because of the recent changes in leadership. “I feel like everyone’s on thin ice right now.”

“That’s why it’s exactly the right time to do it. Messing around and playing pranks will get things back to normal-”

“What are you two knuckleheads talking about?” Herrmann asks, coming into the cooking area to pilfer from the fridge.

“Nothing,” Gallo says, suddenly looking very interested in his apple.

“Yeah-huh,” Herrmann says looking unconvinced.

“He wants to unscrew the legs on probie’s bed,” Ritter says, holding his friend’s gaze, who looks at him in betrayed shock.

“Oh, yeah, you should do it,” Herrmann shrugs, but really seems more interested in the yogurt he’s swiped from the fridge, than the conversation at hand. “Something's gotta be normal around here.”

“See! Herrmann thinks it’s a good idea!”

“Yeah, or he wants to see us get our heads bitten off!” Ritter whispers.

“You’re so boring.”

“Actually…” Darren says, a better idea coming to him, one that probably won’t get them in as much trouble, but will still satisfy Gallo’s need to prank Nathan. “I’ve got a better idea.”

***

“Did you say something to Casey?” Stella calls to Kelly, as she walks out into the bay. It comes out a little more angry than she means it to, but she is a little angry. She doesn’t need him fighting her battles for her, even if it did soften Casey up a little. Kelly looks up from his crossword puzzle looking surprised and equally confused. 

“About what?” Kelly asks and tosses his pencil down on the table.

“Chief ripping me a new one- I didn’t even tell you about that-”

“Take a breath Kidd,” Kelly says calmly and stands up.

“I don’t need you fighting my battles for me.” She knows whatever he said to Casey he was trying to help, and it  _ did  _ help, but she can’t always have Kelly swooping in to save her. If she’s going to be a lieutenant she needs to handle these things herself.

“Stella,” Kelly says a little firmer this time and puts both hands on her shoulder. “I don’t know what exactly happened this morning. And really that’s between you and him. The only thing I told Casey was that this whole thing is a learning curve for everyone, and that he shouldn’t forget that.”

“Oh,” Stella says and deflates a little. Ever since her first talk with Casey she’s been so amped up for a fight. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Kelly replies and wraps his arms around her in a comforting hug.

“I just feel like this big ball of stress, all wound up and ready to burst,” she mumbles and rests her chin on his shoulder. Having him close makes her feel a little better and a little more relaxed.

“You’re doing great, Stella Kidd.”

Stella leans in a little closer to Kelly and as she does so the tones sound.

_ “Truck 81, person trapped.” _

***

“Go get em’,” Kelly says encouragingly as Stella pulls away from him to run to the truck. He wishes he could go with her; he knows whatever the call throws at her she can handle it, but the instinct to protect her and be there to catch her if she falls still tugs at him. He’s never been much of a worrier, but even before she made lieutenant, he’d always get a little pang watching her climb onto 81. Now it’s worse.

***

There’s a woman waiting outside for them waving her arms frantically and shouting when they arrive on scene. 

“You have to help him!” she’s crying before they’re even out of the truck. “I told him a hundred times not to try to work on that damn pick up of his!”

“Ma’am what happened?” Stella asks, forcing herself to be calm. This is her first solo call. There’s no chief giving orders, it’s just her and her instinct.

“He was working under the truck and the engine fell on him,” the woman cries, grabbing hold of her coat.

“Okay, I need you to show us where he is,” Stella says, this time she actually is calm as she silent reminds herself this isn’t her emergency, it’s this poor woman’s. “Gallo and Marks, you two stay out here, I’ll radio you when I know what we need. Mouch you’re with me.”

Gallo and Marks both look disappointed but don’t argue with her. Mouch just nods and follows her and the woman to the back yard.

“You awake under there, sir?” Stella asks, laying on the ground and pearing under the truck.

“Oh, she didn’t call 911 did she?” the man groans, answering her question.

“She did, and from the looks of things she did the right thing,” Stella replies, switching on her flashlight to get a better look at what they’re dealing with. “You got a name?”

“Doug.”

“Lovely to meet you, Doug. I’m Stella. And I’m gonna need you to stay still for me, okay?”

The main part of the engine is pinning the man to the ground, but it’s still attached to the truck in a couple places which is probably the only thing stopping it from crushing him all the way. If they move it wrong it could come down all the way and kill him.

“Gallo, we need cribbing, air bags, jaws, and a rope bag,” she says, keying her radio.

_ “You got it lieutenant.” _

“That sounds like a lot of stuff, am I going to be okay?” Doug asks, sound nervous now.

“Yeah, you’ll be fine. I just wanted all our bases covered,” Stella replies and scooches a little closer to him to get a better look at his injuries. “Can you tell me where you’re hurting?”

“My chest… it’s hard to breathe,” Doug wheezes, in the short amount of time since she’s slid under the car with him, he’s started to look more flushed and weak.

“Okay, that’s normal,” Stella says reassuringly. “And it’ll feel better once we get this thing off of you, but I am going to go ahead and call EMS so they can check you out when we’re done, okay?”

Doug nods.

“81 to main, I need an ambo dispatched to my location.”

_ “Acknowledged.” _

“Lieutenant, we got the cribbing,” Gallo says, pearing under the truck.

“Take half of it and get on the other side, we’re going to prop the thing up with it. Mouch get in the hood and see if you can attach the rope to the engine and anchor it off somewhere to stop this thing from falling any more,” Stella says as she grabs the first couple blocks of cribbing and slides them under the edge of the engine. “How we feeling Doug?”

“I’m doin okay,” he mumbles, but doesn’t seem to be doing all that great.

“I’m all good on this side lieutenant,” Gallo calls from the other side of Doug.

“Good, now we just gotta get this thing up.”

***

“What do we have?” Sylvie asks as she and Mackey make their way to the back side of the house. Stella and the rest of the crew already have the victim on a backboard.

“Minor crush injuries, some labored breathing, but he should go to Med for a full check up,” Stella reports as Mouch, Gallo, and Marks load the backboard onto the stretcher. The lieutenant helmet suits her, Sylvie had always been of the opinion that her best friend would make a great leader.

“Okay, thanks,” Sylvie says as the bring the stretcher back around the house. “We’ll see you guys back at 51 later.”

***

“Hey, Mouch, take a left up here,” Stella says as they’re making their way back to 51.

“You got it.” 

“Alright stop right here,” she directs right before they pass one of her favorite doughnut places in the city. Mouch looks a little surprised but does as he’s told. “Circle the block and come back and get me.”

She climbs out of the truck and heads for the doughnut shop. She feels bad for running them all on drills so hard just because she needed to blow off steam; she’s been on the receiving end of that with Casey, all of them but Nathan have, and it’s something she always hated. So now she’s going to try to make it up to them, doughnuts won’t fix everything but the way to firefighters’ hearts  _ is  _ through their stomachs.

\---

“Okay, eat up ladies,” Stella says, climbing back into 81 with a box of doughnuts.

“Careful, it could be a trick,” Gallo says, stopping Marks before he can grab one of the doughnuts.

“Shut up and take the doughnuts,” Stella quips.

“I wanna know what the occasion is,” Gallo replies, his tone thick with scepticism.

“I’m proud of you guys. You all did great this morning on that pile up and you did great on that last call,” Stella replies.

“Awww, she feels bad for being mean earlier,” Gallo teases, with a cheeky grin.

“Watch it, or I’ll give all your doughnuts to Severide,” Stella warns.

Gallo shrugs and takes a doughnut. Mouch gives her a knowing nod and mumbles something about how he’ll have his back at the station so he’s not eating and driving.

_ “Truck 81, are you available to go back in service?” _

Both Gallo and Mouch groan at the sound of the dispatcher’s voice coming over the radio.

“Just leave her hanging a second,” Galllo pleads.

“I want a doughnut before we do anything else,” Mouch adds.

Stella rolls her eyes and picks up the radio. “We’re available, main.”

***

“Hey, candidate come here,” Gallo says beckoning to Nathan. 

Nathan looks at him warely, he’s been warned that fire houses are places of pranks especially for the new guys, and he’s been waiting for something to happen all day.

“Come on!” Ritter says a little more enthusiastically. 

Nathan doesn’t know either of them very well, but Ritter seems to be the more trustworthy of the two other young firefighters, and like he’s too nice to pull and pranks. Gallo just seems devious.

“Yeah, what do you guys need?” Nathan asks, finally making up his mind to bite the bullet and walk over to them.

“We need you to make dinner,” Gallo says and hands him the spatula. 

“What-”

“It’s a sacred tradition that the candidates cook,” Gallo says, “And see, me and Ritter haven’t been candidates for a hot sec, and yet we’ve been stuck cooking, but now you’ve freed us from that responsibility.”

Nathan sighs and takes the spatula; he’s not really sure if this is better or worse than being pranked. He wasn’t really expecting to be cooking today.

***

“This ain’t half bad,” Herrmann’s the first one to say anything about Nathan’s cooking.

“Yeah, good job candidate!” Casey agrees, raising his cup in Nathan’s direction. 

“It’s my mom’s recipe,” He replies proudly.

“Well your mom’s got a good recipe,” Cruz adds, getting up for his second plate of lasagna.

“Who’s the best cook you guys have ever had?” Nathan asks, sitting back in his chair. He’s so glad the lasagna was a success, he was half expecting it to fail like it usually does when he tries to make it.

“I’d say Mills,” Cruz says sitting back down at the table.

“That’s just because you weren’t around for the Casey, Darden, and Severide epic trio,” Mouch says with a fond smile. “Those three knew how to cook.”

“No, me and Darden knew how to cook, Severide knew how to stand around in the kitchen and pilfer while looking like he was cooking,” Casey corrects.

Severide laughs. “I’ve never had to cook once in any of the years I’ve been here.”

“Well maybe we should make you,” Stella says, prompting a couple nods of agreement.

“I don’t think anyone wants that. It’d be worse than Otis’s cooking.” Severide’s response prompts groans from Casey, Mouch, Herrman and Cruz.

“Was Otis bad at cooking?” Gallo asks, and for the first time since being at the house Nathan realizes that Gallo must’ve been the one who replaced Otis on truck.

“The  _ worst _ !” Cruz says with a laugh. “He was so bad we had to stop letting him cook. It was me and Darden up until…”

“Until we got Mills,” Casey finishes for him, and the room falls quiet for a minute. Nathan can’t help but feel awkward sitting there, he only briefly met Otis once or twice and Darden had died a while before he even met Kelly. He can’t help but wonder if Gallo feels the same way he does.

“Well, I think I’m going to go try to catch some early evening Zs,” Gallo says, stretching his arms and breaking the silence. “The way today’s going, who knows whether I’ll actually get any sleep tonight.”

“Me too,” Ritter says, scooting out his chair. “Lasagna always makes me sleepy. I’d suggest you do too, Marks. Lesson number one about the fire service, you sleep whenever you can.”

The idea of some down time relaxing in bed does sound nice, and all of the older firefighters seem to have had their moods sullied, so he gets up and follows the two of them back to the bunk room.

“Um, guys. Where’s my bunk?” Nathan asks, discovering that his bad is no longer sitting in his assigned corner.

“What do you mean, it should be right...?” Ritter trails off as he walks over see what Nathan’s talking about. “That’s a good question. They did assign you one, right?”

“Yeah, this morning. I made it up and everything. It was  _ right  _ there,” Nathan insists. It was right there. 

“Wow, losing your bed on the first day,” Gallo chuckles shaking his head. “Chief’s not gonna be happy if he has to buy a new one.”

“It’s a bed! It can’t just get up and leave!” Nathan protests.

“Come on, we’ll help you find it,” Ritter promises.

Nathan is really pretty sure this is the doing of these two, but he’s going to go along with it because he needs to find his bed.

***

I thought you youngsters were going to bed?” Herrmann asks as Gallo, Ritter, and Nathan come back into the common room. Nathan looks like a man on a mission.

“We were, but Marks here lost his bed,” Gallo replies, and it’s all Severide can do to not snort. He’d watched Ritter and Gallo move his bed out into the bay.

“I didn’t lose it,” Nathan says defensively. “Someone moved it.”

“Probie, why would anyone move your bed?” Casey asks, in a completely serious tone.

“I don’t know, sir,” Nathan replies, starting to get a little flustered.

“Well you better find it,” Casey says, keeping his voice dead serious.

“Yes sir,” Nathan chokes and heads toward the bay doors. Severide gets up and follows him, and everyone else follows suit, obviously wanting to see how this prank ends. The candidate makes it a couple steps out into the bay and stops. His bed, nightstand and lamp are set up nicely in the middle of the app floor.

“Really guys?” he says turning around to face the whole group. Everyone’s starting to chuckle. Nathan holds their gazes for a couple seconds before shrugging and walking over and plopping himself down on the bed, as he does so it gives out and falls on the floor. He lets out a surprised shout and the shock on his face is priceless. This time there’s no holding back the laughter. Ritter and Gallo share a victorious high five, and Nathan joins in the laughter.

When Severide saw them moving the bed, he thought it was a risky move with how high strung everything at the house has been this shift, but they got everyone laughing so it’s actually the best thing they could’ve done.

***

“So, lieutenant, how was your first day?” Severide asks, tucking his arm around Stella’s shoulders as they leave the station to head home.

“Well, I got yelled at by my chief, and then I took it out on my crew, something I promised myself I wouldn’t do, there was a massive highway wreck…”

“Sounds like an average day,” Kelly says comfortingly and kisses the side of her head lovingly. He’s already heard from his fair share of people that Stella did a great job, so he knows she’s just being hard on herself. “And don’t pay any attention to that crusty old chief.”

“No, definitely pay attention to the crusty old chief. He can have the both of you demoted right back down to candidate status like that,” Casey says behind them, and Kelly ducks his head. He had no idea Casey was right behind them. “I’m kidding. You both did great, especially you Kidd, Mouch said you really kept your head screwed on out there today.”

“Thanks Chief,” Stella mumbles.

“You two going to Molly’s for some day drinking and celebrating surviving the first shift with this new order?” Casey asks hopefully.

“Nah, sorry Case,” Kelly replies. He and Stella had already made plans to do some special celebrating involving the shower, the bed, and later beer and ice cream on the couch. “We’ve already got plans.”

“That’s fine,” Casey shrugs. “See you guys around.”

“Should we go to Molly’s?” Stella asks after they’ve parted ways with Casey.

“I mean I personally like the idea of our other plans…”

“Yeah, but doesn’t seem a little lonely to you?” Stella asks nodding toward Casey, who’s fumbling with keys by his truck.

“He’s got Brett and everyone else.”

***

It had once been told to him by Boden that leaders lead from the front, but also that the front is a lonely place to be. Matt thought he understood it when he got promoted to captain and kept getting in disagreements with Severide- it had been lonely not leading things right alongside his best friend, but this is worse. He and Kelly didn’t get into any fights, but he’s the boss now… two ranks above Severide. Their rolls as leaders are now very different, and Matt can already feel the shift in people’s attitudes toward him, like they’re trying to figure out if he’s just the boss and if he can even be their boss and their friend. He can even feel it from Sev.

“What can I get for you chief?” Herrmann asks as Casey sits down at the bar. The Engine lieutenant is the only other person in the bar.

“Whiskey,” Casey says flatley.

“No gentle morning drinking for you this morning than, huh,” Herrmann jokes.

“No, he’ll have a beer.” 

Casey is taken aback to hear Severide’s voice from behind him, and the squad lieutenant sits down on a bar stool next to him.

“And his lieutenants will be paying for it,” Kidd adds and sits down on Casey’s other side.

“I thought you guys had plans,” Casey says glancing from Kidd to Severide.

“Yeah, but none of them seemed as fun as having a drink with your sorry ass,” Severide says.

“You guys didn’t have to cancel your plans,” Matt says, but he’s really grateful they’re here.

“Oh, we didn’t really have much to actually cancel,” Stella says and pats him on the back.

Casey smiles at his three lieutenants; leading from the front doesn’t always have to be lonely, not if you’re leading the right people.

***

“Hey! Chloe! You didn’t tell me you were coming to visit!” Cruz cries happily as his wife comes into the station. She looks like she’s ready to pop at any second.

“Well, I’m not allowed to work, so I didn’t have anything better to do,” she replies with a happy smile and sits down in the chair Gallo pulls out for her.

“Well, you’re always welcome here,” Casey says sipping his coffee. It’s nice to see her and Cruz so happy.

“Do you need anything?” Cruz asks, rubbing his wife’s shoulders and looking down at her lovingly. The moment, however, doesn’t last long because the bell rings.

_ “Squad 3, water rescue…” _

“Just get the candidate to get it,” Cruz says quickly and kisses the top of her head before running toward the bay doors.

“Be careful baby!” Chloe calls after him as he disappears through the doors.

“Hey, Candidate, see what she needs,” Herrmann calls to Nathan who’s over pilfering the fridge.

“I’ll have a glass of water, Herrmann,” Chloe says, giving a Herrmann that says all too clearly he’d better be the one to get her the water.

“Yes, ma’am,” Herrmann says and moves to the kitchen, but before he can get to the cups the bell sounds a second.

_ “Engine 51, residential fire alarm. No smoke showing.” _

“Guess the candidate will have to get it,” Herrmann says with a shrug. “See you in a little while kiddo-”

The tones drop again.

_ “Truck 81, Ambo 61, single car accident.” _

“Damn, no one said the Q word did they?” Casey asks as the room full of firefighters clears out. 

“You’re not going with them?” Chloe asks as Casey fills up a glass of water for her.

“No,” Matt replies and sits down next to her, setting the cup down in front of her. “They’ve got it covered. If they need me, I’ll go.”

Matt’s never liked sitting out on calls, and as a new chief he certainly doesn’t want to make a habit out of it, but all of those calls sounded relatively small. And someone should stay behind and keep Chloe company, especially with her being so close to her due date.

“Have you guys come up with a name yet?” Matt asks, leaning back in his chair.

“Not yet, we have a few ideas floating around, but nothing final,” she says, rubbing her tummy with one hand. “Oh-” she sucks in a sharp breath and winces.

“Are you okay?” Casey asks, sitting up alertly.

“Yeah, he just likes to kick,” Chloe chuckles, but breaks off and clutches her stomach with another sharp gasp.

***

“Alright, we got you buddy,” Joe says as he and Tony haul the victim into the blow up boat, while Severide pushes him up from the water. Tony throws a blanket over the guys shoulders and directs him to sit back near Capp with the motor.

“Alright, you’re next Lieutenant,” Cruz says and grabs one of Severide’s arms. Cold water splashes him and reminds him again how absolutely stupid it was of their rescuee to be doing anything in the water. Severide pushes himself up ward as together Joe and Tony pull him up. As far as water rescues go, this one was pretty tame.

***

“I’m going to run to the bathroom if that’s okay,” Chloe says standing up, after a while of the two of them just sitting and bouncing back and forth with small talk.

“sure ,” Casey replies and sips his coffee. Chloe makes it a couple steps before stopping as what looks like water splashes on the ground.

“Oh,” she says looking down at the floor, she sounds less surprised than Matt feels. The first thing to cross his mind is panic.

***

_ “Battalion 25 to Squad 3, are you clear on the call?” _

“Yeah, we’re clear Chief,” Severide replies, picking up the radio. “We’re getting ready to head back to quarters, what do you need?”

_ “Reroute to Med,”  _ Casey replies.

Joe leans forward in the back seat so his head is poking between the driver seat and the passenger seat, a nervous feeling settling in his stomach. He can tell from the tone of Casey’s voice that something’s happening, and the reroute to Med means it’s probably something bad. The first thing he can think of is that something went wrong on a call with another company. “Lieutenant, what’s going on?”

“What’s going on, Case?” Severide asks, flashing a quick glance to Cruz.

_ “Chloe’s in labor. I’m driving her in my buggy, but you need to get Cruz there.” _

No one even has to say anything, Tony flips on the sirens and lays on the horn. Joe’s stomach jumps into his throat, and he feels like he’s about to throw up. He’s had nine months to prepare for this, and yet he’s not even remotely ready for it. Not only that but he’s miles away from his wife and his son who will be coming into the world any moment now.

***

Chloe screams, and Matt wants to join her, but the only thing he can do is step on the gas faster.

“Hold on just a little longer, we’re almost there,” Matt says trying to force calm into his voice. He’s delivered babies on the side of the highway in the middle of a pile up before, and yet he’s freaking out over this.

“Don’t tell me to hold on! You drive faster!” Chloe shouts as they pull around the loading doors to the hospital and Casey slows to a stop. 

“Okay we’re here!” He says and jumps out of the car to help her out. April and Dr. Manning are already waiting for them with a stretcher.

“Okay, honey, we got you,” Natalie promises and helps Chloe onto the stretcher. “And we have a room all ready.”

“Where the hell is Joe?!” Chloe shouts as they roll her inside.

“He’s coming, he’s coming, I promise,” Matt assures her as Maggie stops him at the doors of the ER.

“Sorry chief, you gotta wait out here,” Maggie says apologetically.

Casey tries to follow Chloe with his eyes, but she soon disappears from sight. Casey is about to make some argument when the roar of the squad truck’s sirens blares outside the doors of the hospital as the truck rumbles to a stop. The thing isn’t even all the way done moving before Cruz is jumping out the back door and running inside.

***

“Where is she?!” Joe cries as he sees Casey standing with Maggie. He can barely breathe. It’s happening. The baby is coming.  _ It’s happening! _

“Come on, I’ll take you to her,” Maggie says before the chief, who looks a little panicked himself, can say anything.

The elevator ride and everything else is just a blur to him. He’s pretty sure Maggie is talking to him, but he’s all tunnel vision, worse than some wide eyed rookie on their first structure fire; the only thing that matters is Chloe and their son.

“Where’s Joe!? I’m not doing this without him!” Joe can hear his wife shouting even before Maggie opens the door to her room for him.

“I’m here baby!” Joe cries, running to her side and taking her hand in his. “I’m right here, Chloe. You don’t have to do anything without me.”

She smiles at him for a half a second with exhausted relief and then pain spreads across her face and she squeezes his hand and screams.

“There we go, push!” One of the doctors says encouragingly.

Chloe screams louder and squeezes Joe's hand even harder. He screams with her.

“One more big push!”

Chloe lets out one more scream, tears beginning to streak down her cheeks, and after one long heart stopping moment, another cry joins hers. And as the doctor hands them their son he realizes his wife and the baby aren’t the only ones crying.

“He’s beautiful Chloe,” Joe chokes as they cradle him between them. He can’t believe it, he feels like if he so much as blinks it will all somehow disappear, and there’s joy deep down inside of him that’s like nothing he’s ever felt before. It’s like all the happiest days of his life don’t even compare in the slightest.

“Brian?” Joe breathes quietly. It feels right, and like the only name that makes any sense.

“Brian Cruz,” Chloe agrees and leans her head against Joe’s shoulder, both of them unable to take their eyes off the baby.

“Hey, Joe I think you should come bring your son to look out the window,” Dr. Manning says, after what feels like an eternity of him and Chloe sitting in awed silence.

“What?” he asks, a little confused.

“Just come over here,” she says nodding her head toward the window. He looks to Chloe who gives him a nod okay. So he scoops tiny baby Brian into his arms and carries him over to the window. Down below them in the parking lot are 51, 81, 61, the squad, and even Casey’s battalion car, all of them lined up neatly with lights flashing, and everyone standing in a neat line in front of the trucks. They must see him standing in the window because they all salute while looking up toward him, and they give off a couple blasts from the truck horns. And Cruz starts crying again as his 51 family welcomes its newest member into the world.


End file.
